LITERARY    ILLUSTRATIONS    OF 

THE   BIBLE 

Edited  by  James  MofPatt,  D.D. 


THE   EPISTLE   TO   THE 
ROMANS 


LITERARY    ILLUSTRATIONS 
OF   THE   BIBLE 

EDITED  BY  JAMES  MOFFATT,  D.D. 

The  Book  of  Ecclesiastes 
The  Book  of  Daniel 
The  Gospel  of  Saint  Mark 
The  Gospel  of  Saint  Luke 
The  Epistle  to  the  Romans 
The  Book  of  Revelation 


Edinburgh  :  T.  and  A.  Constable,  Printers  to  His  Majesty 


LITERARY    ILLUSTRATIONS 
OF   THE    BIBLE 

nPHE  materials  for  these  volumes  are  of  two 
kinds.  On  the  one  hand,  I  have  set  down 
passages  of  verse  and  prose  in  which  some  text  of 
this  book  of  the  Bible  has  been  used  or  applied  in 
what  appears  to  be  a  forcible  or  notable  manner. 
Some  of  these  are  drawn  from  history  and  bio- 
graphy, others  from  general  literature.  In  the 
second  place,  I  have  admitted  passages  which 
develop  aptly  and  freshly  not  the  words  but  the 
idea  of  a  Biblical  verse.  It  is  hoped  that  both 
classes  of  illustrations  may  prove  interesting  to 
the  ordinary  reader  by  enriching  the  associations 
and  eliciting  the  significance  of  the  Bible.  Some- 
times the  materials  printed  here  will  serve  as 
lighted  candles  placed  beside  the  text  of  Scrip- 
ture, while  in  other  cases  I  trust  it  is  not  too 


ROMANS 

presumptuous  to  expect  that  the  juxtaposition  of 
text  and  quotation  may  help  to  set  in  motion 
the  minds  of  those  who  have  to  use  the  Bible 
constantly  in  the  work  of  preaching  or  teaching 
throughout  the  Christian  churches. 

JAMES  MOFFATT. 


'  He  turned  to  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  a  favourite 
epistle  with  him,  and  deservedly  so,  for  there  we  come 
face  to  face  with  the  divine  apostle,  with  a  reality  un- 
obscured  by  miracle  or  myth.  And  such  a  reality  !  Chris- 
tianity becomes  no  more  a  marvel,  for  a  man  with  that 
force  and  depth  of  experience  is  sufficient  to  impose  a 
religion  on  the  whole  human  race,  no  matter  what  the  form 
of  the  creed  may  be.' — MR.  hale  white  in  Miriam's 
Schooling  and  Other  Papers. 

'  I  think  St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Romans  the  most 
profound  work  in  existence  ;  and  I  hardly  believe  that  the 
writings  of  the  old  Stoics,  now  lost,  could  be  deeper. 
Undoubtedly  it  is,  and  must  be,  very  obscure  to  ordinary 
readers;  but  some  of  the  difficulty  is  accidental,  arising 
from  the  form  in  which  the  Epistle  appears.  If  we  could 
now  arrange  this  work  in  the  way  in  which  we  may  be  sure 
St.  Paul  would  himself  do,  were  he  now  alive,  and  pre- 
paring it  for  the  press,  his  reasoning  would  stand  out 
clearer.  His  accumulated  parentheses  would  be  thrown 
into  notes,  or  extended  to  the  margin.' 

COLERIDGE,  Tabk-Talk. 


ROMANS 

I.  1 6.  I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  gospel. 

*  T  MET  but  one  human  being  that  fore- 
■^  noon,  a  dark  military-looking  wayfarer, 
who  carried  a  game-bag  on  a  baldric;  but 
he  made  a  remark  which  seems  worthy  of 
record.  For  when  I  asked  him  if  he  were 
Protestant  or  Catholic 

* "  Oh,"  said  he,  "  I  make  no  shame  of  my 
religion.     I  am  a  Catholic." 

'  He  made  no  shame  of  it !  The  phrase 
is  a  piece  of  natural  statistics ;  for  it  is  the 
language  of  one  in  a  minority.  .  .  .  You 
may  change  creeds  and  dogmas  by  authority, 
or  proclaim  a  new  religion  with  the  sound  of 
trumpets,  if  you  will ;  but  here  is  a  man  who 
has  his  own  thoughts,  and  will  stubbornly 
adhere  to  them  in  good  and  evil.' — r.  l. 
STEVENSON,  Travels  with  a  Donkey. 

A  I 


ROMANS  [chap.  i. 

*  TT  is  an  immense  blessing  to  be  perfectly 
-*•  callous  to  ridicule ;  or,  which  comes  to 
the  same  thing,  to  be  conscious  thoroughly 
that  what  we  have  in  us  of  noble  and 
delicate,  is  not  ridiculous  to  any  but  fools, 
and  that,  if  fools  will  laugh,  wise  men  will 
do  well  to  let  them.' 

From  DR.  ARNOLD'S  Letters. 


I.  17.  Therein   is   revealed  the   right- 
eousness of  God. 

'ly'OSTLIN,  in  chapter  i.  of  the  second 
-^^  part  of  his  Life  of  Luther,  describes 
the  reformer  at  Erfurt  as  bent  upon  the  study 
of  the  Scripture.  'When  looking  back,  at 
the  close  of  his  life,  on  his  inward  develop- 
ment, he  tells  us  how  perplexed  he  had  been 
by  what  St.  Paul  said  of  the  "  righteousness 
of  God  "  (Rom.  i.  1 7).  For  a  long  time  he 
troubled  himself  about  the  expression,  con- 
necting it  as  he  did,  according  to  the  ruling 
theology  of  the  day,  with  God's  righteousness 
in  the  punishment   of  sinners.      Day   and 


VKR.  17]  ROMANS 

night  he  pondered  over  the  meaning  and 
context  of  the  apostle's  words.  But  at  length, 
he  adds,  God  in  His  great  mercy  revealed 
to  him  that  what  St.  Paul  and  the  gospel 
proclaimed  was  a  righteousness  freely  given 
to  us  by  the  grace  of  God,  who  forgives 
those  who  have  faith  in  His  message  of 
mercy,  and  justifies  them,  and  gives  them  life 
eternal.  Therewith  the  gate  of  heaven  was 
opened  to  him,  and  thenceforth  the  whole 
remaining  purport  of  God's  word  became 
clearly  revealed.' 

The  second  part  of  this  verse  is  also  con- 
nected with  Luther's  experiences.  During 
his  visit  to  Rome  in  151 1  upon  convent 
business,  '  whilst  climbing,  on  his  knees,  and 
in  prayer,  the  sacred  stairs  which  were  said 
to  have  led  to  the  Judgment  hall  of  Pilate, 
and  whither  to  this  day  worshippers  are 
invited  by  the  promise  of  papal  absolutions, 
he  thought  of  the  words  of  St.  Paul  in  his 
Epistle  to  the  Romans,  The  just  shall  live  by 
faith'  (Kostlin).  It  started  a  train  of  re- 
flection that  led  to  grave  questioning  of  the 
Roman  ritual. 


ROMANS  [chap.  i. 

I.  20.  For  the  visible  things  of  him 
since  the  creation  of  the  world  are 
clearly  seen,  being  perceived  through 
the  things  that  are  made,  even  his 
everlasting  power  and  divinity. 

*  nPHE  sun,  the  moon,  the  stars,  the  seas, 

-*-       the  hills,  and  the  plains — 
Are  not  these,  O  soul,    the  vision  of  Him 
who  reigns?' 

TENNYSON. 

See  Keble's  lines  on  '  The  Sunday  called 
Septuagesima.' 


*  A  SPECTS  of  nature  in  different  ages 
^^^  have  changed  before  the  eye  of  man  ; 
at  times  fruitful  of  many  thoughts  ;  at  other 
times  either  unheeded  or  fading  into  in- 
significance in  comparison  of  the  inner 
world.  When  the  apostle  spoke  of  the  visible 
things  which  "  witness  of  the  divine  power 
4 


VER.  20]  ROMANS 

and  glory,"  it  was  not  the  beauty  of  particu- 
lar spots  which  he  recalled ;  his  eye  was  not 
satisfied  with  seeing  the  fairness  of  the 
country  any  more  than  the  majesty  of  cities. 
He  did  not  study  the  flittings  of  shadows 
on  the  hills,  or  even  the  movements  of  the 
stars  in  their  courses.  The  plainest  passages 
of  the  book  of  Nature  were,  equally  with  the 
sublimest,  the  writing  of  a  Divine  hand.  .  .  . 
The  apostle,  in  the  abundance  of  his  revela- 
tions, has  an  eye  turned  inward  on  another 
world.  It  is  not  that  he  is  dead  to  Nature, 
but  that  it  is  out  of  his  way ;  not,  as  in  the 
Old  Testament,  the  veil  or  frame  of  the 
divine  presence,  but  only  the  background  of 
human  nature  and  revelation.  When  speak- 
ing of  the  heathen,  it  comes  readily  into  his 
thoughts ;  it  never  seems  to  occur  to  him  in 
connection  with  the  work  of  Christ.  He 
does  not  read  mysteries  in  the  leaves  of  the 
forest,  or  see  the  image  of  the  cross  in  the 
form  of  the  tree,  or  find  miracles  of  design 
in  the  complex  structures  of  animal  life. 
His  thoughts  respecting  the  works  of  God 
are  simpler  and  also  deeper.  The  child  and 
5 


ROMANS  [CHAP.  I. 

the  philosopher  alike  hear  a  witness  in  the 
first  chapter  of  Romans,  or  in  the  discourse 
of  the  apostle  on  Mars'  Hill,  or  at  Lystra, 
which  the  mystic  fancies  of  Neo-platonism 
and  the  modern  evidences  of  natural  theology 
fail  to  convey  to  them.' — From  jowett's 
JSssay  on  Natural  Religion. 


*  T^HE  Sidonians  agreed  amongst  them- 
■^  selves  to  choose  him  to  be  their  king 
who  that  morning  should  first  see  the  sun. 
Whilst  all  others  were  gazing  on  the  east, 
one  alone  looked  on  the  west.  But  he  first 
of  all  discovered  the  light  of  the  sun  shining 
on  the  tops  of  houses.  God  is  seen  sooner, 
easier,  clearer  in  His  operations  than  in  His 
essence.  Best  beheld  by  reflection  in  His 
creatures.  For  the  invisible  things  of  Him  are 
clearly  seen,  being  understood  by  the  things 
that  are  made.^ 

THOMAS  FULLER. 


VER.  21-22]  ROMANS 

I.  21.  Knowing  God,  they  glorified 
him  not  as  God. 

*  I  TOO  have  strength — 
Strength  to  behold  Him  and  not  worship 

Him, 
Strength  to  fall  from  Him  and  not  cry  on 

Him, 
Strength  to  be  in  the  universe  and  yet 
Neither  God  nor  His  servant.' 

Lucifer  to  Gabriel  in  mrs.  browning's 
A  Drama  of  Exile. 

I.  21-2  2.  They  became  vain  in  their 
imaginings  .  .  .  professing  them- 
selves to  be  wise  (with  II.  19). 

*  A  SELF -CONTENTED  man  is  the 
"^^  hardened  swelling  on  the  breast  of 
society.  He  is  my  sworn  enemy.  He  fills 
himself  with  cheap  truths,  with  gnawed 
morsels  of  musty  wisdom,  and  he  exists  Hke 
a  storeroom  where  a  stingy  housewife 
keeps  all  sorts  of  rubbish  which  is  absolutely 
unnecessary  to  her,  and  worthless.  .  ,  . 
These  unfortunate  people  call  themselves 
7 


ROMANS  [chap.  ii. 

men  of  firm  character,  men  of  principles  and 
convictions,  and  no  one  cares  to  see  that  con- 
victions are  to  them  but  the  clothes  with  which 
they  cover  the  beggarly  nakedness  of  their 
souls.  On  the  narrow  brows  of  such  people 
there  always  shines  the  inscription  so  familiar 
to  all :  "  Calmness  and  confidence."  What  a 
false  inscription !  Just  rub  their  foreheads 
with  firm  hand  and  then  you  will  see  the 
real  signboard,  which  reads :  "  Narrow- 
mindedness  and  weakness  of  soul." ' 

MAXIM  GORKY. 

II.   4.  The  goodness  of  God  leadeth 
thee  to  repentance. 

*  T  F  goodness  lead  him  not,  yet  weariness 
"^     May  toss  him  to  My  breast.' 

GEORGE  HERBERT. 

II.  13.   Not  the  hearers  of  the  law  are 
just  before  God,  but  the  doers. 

*  "P  REACH  to  these  men  as  one  may,' 
-*-  thundered  Savonarola  to  the  Florentines, 
*they  have   got  into  the  habit  of  listening 

8 


VER.  15]  ROMANS 

well  and  yet  acting  ill.  This  habit  has  be- 
come a  second  nature,  and  they  contrive  to 
listen  without  obeying.  And  it  is  as  hard 
to  change  this  course  of  things  as  to  change 
the  course  of  the  waters.  Thou  hast  made 
a  habit  of  always  hearing  the  command? 
Then  do  justice,  do  justice.  Else  thou  wilt 
become  like  a  rook  on  the  steeple,  that,  at 
the  first  stroke  of  the  church  bell,  takes 
flight  and  is  scared,  but  afterwards,  growing 
accustomed  to  the  sound,  perches  quietly  on 
the  bell,  however  loudly  it  be  rung.' 

II.   14.   The  Gentiles  are  a  law  unto 
themselves. 

The  text  of  Butler's  two  sermons  on  'The 
Natural  Supremacy  of  Conscience.' 

II.  15.  Their  thoughts  one  with  another 
accusing  or  else  excusing  them. 

S   Jowett,   in    his   introduction  to    the 
GorgiaSi    observes,    'Men   are  not  in 
the  habit  of  dwelling  upon  the  dark  side  of 
9 


A' 


ROMANS  [chap.  ii. 

their  own  lives ;  they  do  not  easily  see  them- 
selves as  others  see  them.  They  are  very 
kind  and  very  blind  to  their  own  faults ; 
the  rhetoric  of  self-love  is  always  pleading 
with  them  on  their  own  behalf.  Adopting 
a  similar  figure  of  speech,  Socrates  would 
have  them  use  rhetoric,  not  in  defence  but 
in  accusation  of  themselves.  .  .  . 

'  Under  the  figure  there  lurks  a  real  thought, 
which,  expressed  in  another  form,  admits  of 
an  easy  application  to  ourselves.  For  do 
not  we  too  accuse  as  well  as  excuse  our- 
selves ?  ...  In  religious  diaries  a  sort  of 
drama  is  often  enacted  by  the  consciences 
of  men  "accusing  or  else  excusing  them." 
For  all  our  life  long  we  are  talking  with 
ourselves ' 


II.  1 6.  In  the  day  when  God  shall  judge 
the  secrets  of  man. 

TN  a  much-criticised  passage  in  his 
■^  Enigmas  of  Life^  Mr.  Rathbone  Greg 
attempts  to  describe  one  of  the  retributive 


VER.  i6]  ROMANS 

pangs     falling    to    the    sinful    soul,    which 
belong  to  the  nature  of  the  future  world, 
namely,  'the  severance  from   all  those  we 
love  who  on  earth  have  trod  the  narrower 
and  better  path.'     '  What,'  he  asks,  '  can  be 
more    certain,    because   what   more   in   the 
essential  nature  of  things,  than  that  the  great 
revelation  of  the  Last  Day  (or  that  which 
must  attend  and  be  involved  in  the  mere 
entrance  into  the  spiritual  state)  will  effect  a 
severance  of  souls — an  instantaneous  gulf  of 
demarcation  between  the  pure  and  the  im- 
pure, the  just  and  the  unjust,  the  merciful  and 
the  cruel— immeasurably  more  deep,  essential, 
and   impassable,   than   any   which   time   or 
distance  or  search  or  antipathy  could  effect 
on    earth?     Here   we   never  see   into   each 
other's  souls;  characters  the  most  opposite 
and     incompatible     dwell     together     upon 
earth,  and  may  love  each  other  much,  un- 
suspicious of  the  utter  want  of  fundamental 
harmony  between  them.  ...  But  when  the 
great   curtain    of    ignorance   and   deception 
shall   be  withdrawn— "  when  the  secrets  of 
all  hearts  shall  be  made  known  "—when  the 


II 


ROMANS  [chap.  ii. 

piercing  light  of  the  spiritual  world  shall  at 
once  and  for  ever  disperse  those  clouds 
which  have  hidden  what  we  really  are  from 
those  who  have  loved  us  and  almost  from 
ourselves,  when  the  trusting  confidence  of 
friendship  shall  discover  what  a  serpent  has 
been  nourished  in  its  bosom,  when  the 
yearning  mother  shall  perceive  on  what  a 
guilty  wretch  all  her  boundless  and  priceless 
tenderness  has  been  lavished,  when  the  wife 
shall  at  length  see  the  husband  whom  she 
cherished  through  long  years  of  self-denying 
and  believing  love  revealed  in  his  true 
colours,  a  wholly  alien  creature;  what  a 
sudden,  convulsive,  inevitable,  because 
natural  separation  will  then  take  place !  One 
flash  of  light  has  done  it  all.  The  merciful 
delusions  which  held  friends  together  upon 
earth  are  dispersed,  and  the  laws  of  the  mind 
must  take  their  course  and  divide  the  evil 
from  the  good.' 


VER.  2i]  ROMANS 

II.  21.  Thou  therefore  which  teachest 
another,  teachest  not  thou  thyself? 
etc. 

*  "pERHAPS  some  of  the  most  terrible 
-*-  irony  of  the  human  lot  is  this  of  a 
deep  truth  coming  to  be  uttered  by  lips  that 
have  no  right  to  it.' 

GEORGE  ELIOT. 


/"^harles  Lamb,  writing  of  his  cousin  James, 
^-^  observes :  '  It  is  pleasant  to  hear  him 
discourse  of  patience — extolling  it  as  the 
truest  wisdom — and  to  see  him  during  the 
last  seven  minutes  that  his  dinner  is  getting 
ready.  Nature  never  ran  up  in  her  haste  a 
more  restless  piece  of  workmanship  than 
when  she  moulded  this  impetuous  cousin — 
and  art  never  turned  out  a  more  elaborate 
orator  than  he  can  display  himself  to  be, 
upon  his  favourite  topic  of  the  advantages 
of  quiet,  and  contentedness  in  the  state, 
whatever  it  may  be,  that  we  are  placed  in.' 
13 


ROMANS  [chap.  ii. 

/^ONTRAST    the    picture    of   the    poor 
^^     parson  in  Chaucer's  Prologue : — 
*  This  noble  ensample  to  his  shepe  he  yaf, 
That  first   he  wrought,  and  afterward  he 

taught.  .  .  . 
Christes  lore  and  his  apostles  twelve 
He  taught,  but  first  he  folwed  it  himselve.' 

*  T  T  IS  life,'  says  Macaulay  of  Steele,  '  was 
-■-  -^  spent  in  sinning  and  repenting ;  in 
inculcating  what  was  right  and  doing  what 
was  wrong.  In  speculation,  he  was  a  man 
of  piety  and  honour;  in  practice  he  was 
much  of  the  rake  and  a  little  of  the  swindler.' 

*  "PERSONS  blessed  with  Mrs.  Crookenden's 
-*-  description  of  temperament  are  not 
easily  convicted  of  sin.  Reproof  usually 
presents  itself  to  them  rather  as  the  result 
of  an  impertinence  upon  the  part  of  some- 
body else,  than  as  the  result  of  misdoing  on 
their  own.  Conscience,  indeed,  in  them  is 
magnificently  altruistic  —  active  merely  in 
respect  of  others.  In  respect  of  their  own 
conduct  it  is  finely  tranquil.' 

LUCAS  MALET. 

14 


VER.  2i]  ROMANS 

Thou  that  preachest  a  man  should  not 
steal,  dost  thou  steal  ? 

*  T^HEY,  sweet   soul,   that   most  impute  a 
-*-      crime 
Are  pronest  to  it,  and  impute  themselves.' 

TENNYSON. 


'  Good  my  brother, 
Do  not,  as  some  ungracious  pastors  do. 
Show   me    the    steep    and    thorny   way   to 

heaven ; 
Whilst,  like  a  puff'd  and  reckless  libertine. 
Himself   the    primrose    path    of  dalliance 

treads. 
And  recks  not  his  own  rede.' 

SHAKESPEARE. 


*  nPHE  world  smiles  when  we  complain  of 

-*-       Russian     aggression.        The     Asiatic 

subjects  of  the  Queen  of  England  are  two 

hundred  millions.     The  Asiatic  subjects  of 

15 


ROMANS  [chap.  ii. 

Russia  are  forty   millions.      The   right   on 
both  sides  is  the  right  of  conquest.' 

froude's  Beaconsfield^  p.  244. 


O  ENECA'S  fame  as  a  moralist  and  philo- 
^  sopher  was  due,  perhaps,  in  the  first 
instance  to  his  position  about  the  Court,  and 
to  his  enormous  wealth.  A  little  merit  passes 
for  a  great  deal  when  it  is  framed  in  gold,  and 
once  established  it  would  retain  its  reputa- 
tion, from  the  natural  liking  of  men  for 
virtuous  cant.  Those  lectures  to  Lucilius 
on  the  beauty  of  poverty  from  the  greatest 
money-lender  and  usurer  in  the  empire ! 
Lucilius  is  to  practise  voluntary  hardships, 
is  to  live  at  intervals  on  beggars'  fare,  and 
sleep  on  beggars'  pallets,  that  he  may  sym- 
pathise in  the  sufferings  of  mortality  and  be 
independent  of  outward  things.  If  Seneca 
meant  all  this,  why  did  he  squeeze  five 
millions  of  our  money  out  of  the  provinces 
with  loans  and  contracts  ? ' — From  froude's 
Essay  on  The  Norway  Fjords, 


16 


VER.  24]  ROMANS 

II.  24.  For  the  name  of  God  is  blas- 
phemed among  the  Gentiles  because 
of  you. 

♦n^HIS  I  well  remember,  that  though  I 
-"-  could  myself  sin  with  the  greatest  De- 
light and  Ease,  and  also  take  pleasure  in  the 
vileness  of  my  companions ;  yet,  even  then, 
if  I  have  at  any  time  seen  wicked  things 
by  those  who  professed  goodness,  it  would 
make  my  spirit  tremble.  As  once,  above 
the  rest,  when  I  was  in  the  height  of  my 
Vanity,  yet  hearing  one  to  swear  that  was 
reckoned  for  a  religious  Man,  it  had  so 
great  a  stroke  upon  my  Spirit  that  it  made 
my  heart  ache.' 

Grace  Abounding,  sec.  11. 

'  13  ELIGIOUS  ideas  have  the  fate  of 
-"-^  melodies,  which,  once  set  afloat  in 
the  world,  are  taken  up  by  all  sorts  of  in- 
struments, some  of  them  wofully  coarse, 
feeble,  or  out  of  tune,  until  people  are  in 
danger  of  crying  out  that  the  melody  itself 
is  detestable.'  george  eliot. 

B  17 


o 


ROMANS  [chap.  hi. 

II.   28-29.   ^  Jew  inwardly. 

|N  the  occasion  of  his  momentous  visit  to 
Ulverstone  and  Swarthmore,  George 
Fox  describes  his  visit  to  the  local  church, 
where  ultimately  he  was  moved  to  speak. 
'  The  word  of  the  Lord  to  them  was,  Ife  is 
not  a  Jew  that  is  one  outwardly^  but  he  is  a 
Jew  that  is  one  inwardly^  whose  praise  is  not 
of  man  but  of  God^  The  text,  which  may 
be  termed  one  of  the  Quakers'  texts  in  the 
New  Testament,  was  often  upon  Fox's  lips. 


III.  1-3.  What  advantage  then  hath 
the  Jew  ?  Much  every  way  ;  first 
of  all,  that  they  were  entrusted  with 
the  oracles  of  God. 

*  T^HE  Jews,'  says  Heine,  'might  well  con- 
^  sole  themselves  for  the  loss  of  Jeru- 
salem and  the  Temple,  and  the  Ark  of  the 
Covenant,  the  sacred  jewels  of  the  high 
priest,  and  the  golden  vases  of  Solomon. 
Such  a  loss  is  trifling  compared  with  the 
18 


VER.  25]  ROMANS 

Bible — that    indestructible    treasure    which 
they  saved.' 

III.  23.  There  is  no  distinction;  all 
have  sinned  and  come  short  of  the 
glory  of  God. 

*  00  we  come  to  the  word  which  is  in  some 
^  sense  the  governing  word  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Romans — the  word  all.  As  the  word 
righteousness  is  the  governing  word  of  St. 
Paul's  entire  mind  and  life,  so  the  word  all 
may  stand  for  the  governing  word  of  this  his 
chief  epistle.' 

MATTHEW   ARNOLD. 

III.  25- 

*  T^HE  happy  period  which  was  to  shake  oflf 

-^  my  fetters,  and  afford  me  a  clear 
opening  of  the  free  mercy  of  God  in  Christ 
Jesus  was  now  arrived.  I  flung  myself  into 
a  chair  near  the  window,  and  seeing  a  Bible 
there,  ventured  once  more  to  apply  to  it  for 
comfort  and  instruction.  The  first  verse  I 
saw  was  the  25th  of  the  3rd  of  Romans: 
19 


ROMANS  [chap.  hi. 

Whom  God  set  forth  to  be  a  propitiation ^ 
through  faith,  by  His  blood,  to  tnanifest  His 
righteousness.  Immediately  I  received 
strength  to  believe,  and  the  full  beams  of 
the  Sun  of  Righteousness  shone  upon  me. 
In  a  moment  I  believed,  and  received  the 

gospel.'  COWPER. 

III.   26.  For  the  showing  of  His  right- 
eousness. 

«  JUSTIFICATION  ...  is  a  great  and 
J  august  deed  in  the  sight  of  heaven  and 
hell ;  it  is  not  done  in  a  corner  but  by  Him 
who  would  show  the  world  what  should  be 
done  unto  those  whom  the  king  delighteth  to 
honour.  It  is  a  pronouncing  righteous 
while  it  proceeds  to  make  righteous. 

Such  is  the  force  of  passages  like  the 
following  : — To  show  forth  His  righteousness 
for  the  remission  of  sins  that  are  past,  to  show 
forth,  I  say,  at  this  time,  His  righteousness. 
Who  shall  lay  anything  to  the  charge  of  God's 
elect 'i  Who  is  he  that  condemnetht  as  if 
publicly  challenging  the  world  .  .  .  and  so 
20 


VER.  28]  ROMANS 

again  St.  Paul,  quoting  Isaiah,  Whosoever 
believeth  in  Him  shall  not  be  ashamed.  In 
these  and  similar  passages,  the  great  recovery 
or  justification  of  the  sinner  in  God's  sight 
is  not  the  silent  bestowal  of  a  gift,  but  an 
open  display  of  His  power  and  love.' 

Newman's  Lectures  on  Justification. 

III.    28.    A   man  is  justified   by  faith 
without  the  deeds  of  the  law. 

*  T  T  NTO  thy  broken  cisterns  wherefore  go, 
^      While  from  the  secret  treasure-depths 

below, 
Fed  by  the  skiey  shower. 
And  clouds  that  smile  and  rest  on  hill-tops 

high, 
Wisdom  at  once  and  Power, 
Are  welling,  bubbling  forth,  unseen,  inces- 
santly ? 
Why  labour  at  the  dull  mechanic  oar, 
When  the  fresh  breeze  is  blowing. 
And  the  strong  current  flowing. 
Right  onward  to  the  eternal  shore  ? ' 

CLOUGH. 

21 


ROMANS  [chap.  iv. 

IV.     3.    What    saith     the     Scripture  ? 
Abraham  believed  God. 

*  TN  this  word  faiyk,  as  used  by  St.  Paul,  we 
-■-  reach  a  point  round  which  the  ceaseless 
stream  of  religious  exposition  and  discussion 
has  for  ages  circled.  ...  It  will  at  once 
appear  that  while  it  can  properly  be  said  of 
Abraham,  for  instance,  that  he  was  justified 
by  faith,  if  we  take  faith  in  its  plain  sense  of 
holding  fast  to  an  unseen  power  of  goodness, 
yet  it  cannot  without  difficulty  and  recourse 
to  a  strained  figure,  be  said  of  him,  if  we  take 
faith  in  Paul's  specific  sense  of  identification 
with  Christ  through  the  emotion  of  attach- 
ment to  him.  Paul,  however,  undoubtedly, 
having  conveyed  his  new  specific  sense  into 
the  word  faith,  still  uses  the  word  both  in  the 
specific  sense  of  identification  with  Christ 
and  also  in  all  cases  where,  without  this 
specific  sense,  it  was  before  applicable  and 
usual,  and  in  this  way  he  often  creates 
ambiguity.  Why,  it  may  be  asked,  does 
Paul,  instead  of  employing  another  term  to 
denote  his  special  meaning,  still  thus  employ 
22 


VER.  3]  ROMANS 

the  general  term  faith  ?  We  are  inclined  to 
think  it  was  from  that  desire  to  get  for  his 
words  and  thoughts  not  only  the  real  but 
also  the  apparent  sanction  and  consecration 
of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  which  we  have 
called  his  tendency  to  Judaise.' — matthew 
ARNOLD,  6"/.  Paul  and  Protestantism. 

Compare  the  interesting  discussion  of  this 
passage  in  Miss  Wedgwood's  Message  of 
Israel t  pp.  142-144. 

V.   I.   Being  now  justified  by  faith,  we 
have  peace  with  God 

*  /^ONVICTION  long  hath  waited  at  the 
^     gate, 

And  I  was  deaf,  refusing  entrance ; 
But  now  that  he  is  master  of  the  house, 
Peace  glideth  in  to  keep  him  company.' 

C.  J.  WELLS. 

T  N  his  '  Notes  on  Art '  in  Horce  Subsecivce, 
•*-     Dr.  Brown  thus  describes  a  picture  of 
Luther   in   the  Convent  Library  at  Erfurt. 
23 


ROMANS  [chap.  v. 

*  It  is  Luther,  the  young  monk  of  four-and- 
twenty,  in  the  Library  of  the  Convent  at 
Erfurt.  .  .  .  He  is  gazing  into  the  open 
pages  of  a  huge  Vulgate — we  see  it  is  the 
early  chapters  of  the  Romans.  A  bit  of 
broken  chain  indicates  that  the  Bible  was 
once  chained — to  be  read,  but  not  possessed 
— it  is  now  free,  and  his  own.  .  .  .  Next 
moment  he  will  come  upon — or  it  on  him — 
the  light  from  heaven,  shining  out  from  the 
words,  Therefore^  being  justified  by  faith,  we 
have  peace  with  God,  and  in  intimation  of 
this.  His  dawn,  the  sweet  pearly  light  of 
morning,  shining  in  at  the  now  open  lattice, 
is  reflected  from  the  page  upon  his  keen, 
anxious  face  ' 


3-5.  We  glory  in  tribulations,  etc. 

*  O  T.  PAUL  has  not  got  much  credit  for 
^  poetic  feeling  amongst  the  many  great 
poets  of  the  Bible,  and  no  doubt  the  pass- 
ages in  which  he  rises  into  poetry  are  some- 
what rare ;  but  of  one  of  them,  I  suspect,  we 
24 


VER.  3-5]  ROMANS 

miss  the  beauty  and  force  rather  for  want  of 
such  a  mental  history  as  that  oi  In  Memoriani 
to  explain  it,  than  from  any  want  of  pathos, 
depth,  and  singular  precision  of  feeling  in 
the  passage  itself.  It  would  injure  In 
Memoriam  to  give  it  a  Biblical  motto, 
for  that  would  tend  to  classify  a  great 
modern  poem  in  that  dismal  category  of 
works  known  as  "  serious  reading,"  and  so 
to  diminish  its  just  influence ;  otherwise  it 
would  be  hard  to  find  a  more  exact  and  pro- 
found summary  of  its  cycle  of  thought  and 
emotion  than  St.  Paul's  reason  (evidently 
an  afterthought)  for  "glorying  in  tribula- 
tion"— "knowing  that  tribulation  worketh 
patience,  and  patience  experience,  and  ex- 
perience hope;  and  hope  maketh  not 
ashamed,  because  the  love  of  God  is  shed 
abroad  in  our  hearts  by  the  Holy  Ghost 
which  is  given  to  us."  That  is  a  true  sum- 
mary of  the  drift  of  7;^  Memoriam.^ — From 
R.  H.  hutton's  Essay  on  Tennyson. 


25 


ROMANS  [chap.  v. 

V.  3.   Let  us  also  rejoice  in  our  tribula- 
tions. 

*  T  OY  and  woe  are  woven  fine, 

J      A  clothing  for  the  soul  divine ; 
Under  every  grief  and  pine 
Runs  a  joy  with  silken  twine. 
It  is  right  it  should  be  so ; 
Man  was  made  for  joy  and  woe ; 
And  when  this  we  rightly  know, 
Safely  through  the  world  we  go.' 

blake's  Auguries  of  Innocence, 

*  T  PRAISE  Thee  while  my  days  go  on ; 
"'-      I  love  Thee  while  my  days  go  on ; 
Through  dark  and  dearth,  through  fire  and 

frost, 
With  emptied  arms  and  treasures  lost, 
I  thank  Thee  while  my  days  go  on.' 

E.  B.  BROWNING. 

'  A 17HETHER  it  may  seem  paradoxical  or 
not,  it  is  a  fact  in  our  nature  that,  with- 
out endurance,  life  ceases  to  be  enjoyable; 
26 


VER.  3]  ROMANS 

without  pains  accepted,  pleasure  will  not  be 
permanent.  ...  A  life  from  which  every- 
thing that  has  in  it  the  element  of  pain  is 
banished,  becomes  a  life  not  worth  having ; 
or  worse,  of  intolerable  tedium  and  disgust.' 

JAMES  KIKTON. 


'  IV/r  ETHINKS  we  do  as   fretful  children 
^^^     do, 

Leaning  their  faces  on  the  window-pane 
To  sigh  the  glass  dim  with  their  own  breath's 

stain. 
And  shut  the  sky  and  landscape  from  their 

view.  .  .  . 

Be  still  and  strong, 
O    man,    my    brother !    hold   thy    sobbing 

breath, 
And  keep  thy  soul's  large  window  pure  from 

wrong. 
That  so,  as  life's  appointment  issueth. 
Thy  vision  may  be  clear  to  watch  along 
The  sunset  consummation-lights  of  death.' 

E.  B.  BROWNING. 

27 


ROMANS  [chap.  v. 

V.  5.  The  love  of  God  is  shed  abroad 
in  our  hearts. 

*  1740.  Thur.,  Jan.  3. — I  left  London, 
and  the  next  evening  came  to  Oxford, 
where  I  spent  the  two  following  days  in 
looking  over  the  letters  which  I  had  received 
for  the  sixteen  or  eighteen  years  past.  How 
few  traces  of  inward  religion  are  here  !  I 
found  but  one  among  all  my  correspondents 
who  declared  (what  I  well  remember  at 
that  time  I  knew  not  how  to  under- 
stand) that  God  had  shed  abroad  His  love  in 
his  heart  and  given  him  \.\\&  peace  that passeth 
all  understandi?ig.  But  who  believed  his 
report?  Should  I  conceal  a  sad  truth,  or 
declare  it  for  the  profit  of  others?  He 
was  expelled  out  of  his  society  as  a  mad- 
man ;  and,  being  disowned  of  his  friends, 
and  despised  and  forsaken  of  all  men,  lived 
obscure  and  unknown  for  a  few  months, 
and  then  went  to  Him  whom  his  soul 
loved.' 

v^esley's  Jourfial. 

28 


VER.  8]  ROMANS 

V.  6.  Christ  died  for  the  ungodly. 

'  T  BELIEVE  that  He  was  dead ;  and  that 
^  not  simply  as  a  matter  of  course,  but  as 
a  matter  of  necessity  as  man's  Redeemer.' 

DR.  JOHN  PULSFORD. 

V.  7.  Peradventure    for   a   good    man 
some  would  even  dare  to  die. 

*T1  T'HEREVER  through  the  ages  rise 
^  ^      The  altars  of  self-sacrifice, 
Where  love  its  arms  has  opened  wide. 
Or  man  for  man  has  calmly  died, 
I  see  the  same  white  wings  outspread  , 
That  hovered  o'er  the  Master's  head.' 

WHITTIER. 

V.  8.  God  commendeth  (not  createth) 
his  own  love  toward  us. 

*  T  T  is  not  God  but  Man  that  is  changed  by 
-*-  our  Saviour's  death ;  it  is  not  necessary 
for  our  reparation  that  a  change  be  wrought 
upon  Him,  but  upon  us,  seeing  that  it  is  not 
God  but  man  that  has  lost  his  goodness. 
29 


ROMANS  [chap.  v. 

Christ  came  into  the  world,  not  to  make 
God  better,  but  to  make  us  better ;  nor  did 
He  die  to  make  Him  more  disposed  to  do 
good,  but  to  dispose  us  to  receive  it.' 

RICHARD  BAXTER. 


*  'T^HERE  is  a  common  saying  that  it  is  hard 
'*-  to  forgive  those  whom  we  have  injured. 
Certainly  we  are  apt  to  imagine  them  to  feel 
unkindly  towards  us.  A  sense  of  ill-desert 
banishes  men  from  God  the  more  effectually 
because  they  know  it  to  be  a  true  and  right 
feeling,  and  know  that  if  they  condemn  their 
sin  God  condemns  it  even  more.  Such  is 
the  effect  of  the  moral  ideal  brought  within 
the  pale  of  consciousness.  But  the  law 
reveals  man  to  himself;  it  does  not  reveal 
God  to  man  save  partially  and  in  one  rela- 
tion. He  is  more  than  law  and  justice  and 
holiness.  There  is  a  mercifulness  deeper 
than  all.  "  God  commendeth  his  love  to- 
wards us,  in  that,  while  we  were  yet  sinners, 
Christ  died  for  us.'" — dr.  g.  p.  fisher  in 
The  Century  Magazine^  vol.  xxxix.  p.  789. 
30 


VER.  8]  ROMANS 

See  the  striking  illustration  of  this  quoted 
by  Hugh  Miller  in  the  seventeenth  chapter  of 
My  Schools  and  Schoolmasters. 


TN  acknowledging  a  copy  of  Max  Miiller's 
-'-  Westminster  Abbey  lecture  on  Missions, 
sent  him  by  his  wife,  Dr.  Bushnell  wrote : — 
*  I  read  your  little  book  right  through  at 
once.  .  .  .  We  are  half  tempted  to  say,  as 
we  read,  Well,  what  more  of  Gospel  do  we 
want  than  simply  to  believe  in  the  love,  and 
take  it  as  our  Gospel  to  convert  the  world 
with,  joining  hands  with  all  that  will  join 
hands  with  us,  be  they  called  by  whatever 
name  ?  So  I  said  when  I  came  to  the  end. 
But  there  was  an  after-thought,  showing  a 
difference.  What  can  ever  make  up  the 
Gospel  we  want  but  to  have  the  love  coming  in 
the  line  of  a  forgivingness  ?  It  really  does  not 
come  to  be  a  salvation  till  the  love  is  seen  mak- 
ing cost,  and  coming  after  us  as  by  sacrifice. 
It  would  not  be  difficult  for  even  a  heathen 
to  believe  in  God  as  love;  but  to  believe 
31 


ROMANS  [chap.  v. 

that  He  comes  after  us  through  painstaking 
and  sorrow  would  be  very  far  off — ah  !  it  is 
impossible ! ' 


H 


V.  15.  Not  as  the  offence,  so  also  is 
the  free  gift. 

OW  I  wish  that  Paul  were  here  for  a 

month  to  tell  us  what  he  meant  by 

Xapia-fia  in  the  fifth  chapter  of  the  Epistle 

to  the  Romans !     How  I  wish  that  he  had 

but  just  spoken  a  little  more  distinctly.' 

THOMAS  ERSKiNE  of  Linlathen. 


V.  20.  Where  sin  abounded,  grace  did 
much  more  abound. 

*  T  Sx\W  also,'  says  George  Fox  in  his 
^  /ourna/,  '  that  there  was  an  ocean  of 
darkness  and  death  :  but  an  infinite  ocean 
of  light  and  love,  which  flowed  over  the 
ocean  of  darkness.  In  that  also  I  saw  the 
infinite  love  of  God.' 
32 


CHAP.  VI.]  ROMANS 

VI.  II.  In  Christ  Jesus. 

•AMI  wrong  in  saying  that  he  who  has 
-^^  mastered  the  meaning  of  those  two 
prepositions  now  truly  rendered — "  into  the 
Name,"  "/«  Christ  " — has  found  the  central 
truth  of  Christianity?  Certainly  I  would 
gladly  have  given  the  ten  years  of  my  life 
spent  on  the  Revision  to  bring  only  these 
two  phrases  of  the  New  Testament  to  the 
heart  of  Englishmen.' 

WESTCOTT. 

Alive  unto  God  in  Christ  Jesus. 

*  "\T  O  extramural  God,  the  God  within 
-*•  ^      Alone  gives  aid  to  city  charged  with 
sin.' 

MEREDITH. 

VI.  13.  Your  members  as  instruments 
of  righteousness  unto  God. 

'"l^rE  are  the  choice  of  the  Will:   God, 
^  ^      when  He  gave  the  word 
That  called  us  into  line,  set  in  our  hand  a 

sword ; 
c  33 


ROMANS  [chap.  vi. 

Set  us  a  sword  to  wield  none  else  could  lift 

and  draw, 
And  bade   us   forth   to   the   sound   of  the 

trumpet  of  the  Law. 
East  and  west  and  north,  wherever  the  battle 

grew, 
As  men  to  a  feast  we  fared,  the  work  of  the 

Will  to  do. 

W.  E.  HENLEY. 


VI.  1 6- 1 8.   Servants  of  righteousness. 

*  'T^HERE  is  but  one  passion  which  cannot 
-*■  go  astray,  cannot  be  too  great, — the 
passion  for  righteousness  embodied  in  Jesus. 
Philosophy  and  love  are  here  the  same  thing. 
No  vague  ideals  are  these,  dressed  up  in  fine 
words,  drawing  on  to-morrow  because  they 
have  had  no  yesterday,  but  ascertained  and 
ascertainable  experience.  Life  is  an  art  too 
complex  for  any  rule  but  one,  and  that  is 
the  Imitation  of  Christ.' — dr.  william  barry 
in  The  Two  Standards 
34 


VER.  20]  ROMANS 

VI.  18.   Being  made  free  from  sin,  ye 
became  servants  of  righteousness. 

*  'VT'OUR  liberty  will  be  sacred,  so  long  as  it 
■*■       shall   be   governed   by    and    evolved 
beneath  an  idea  of  Duty.' 

MAZZINI. 


* "  I  ^RUE  freedom  is  where  no  restraint   is 
•^       known 
That    Scripture,    justice,   and    good  sense 

disown  ; 
Where  only  vice  and  injury  are  tied. 
And  all  from  shore  to  shore  is  free  beside.' 

COWPER. 

VI.  20.  When  ye  were  servants  of  sin, 
ye  were  free  in  regard  of  righteous- 
ness. 

*  nTHROUGH  no  disturbance  of  my  soul, 
"*■       Or  stray  compunction  in  me  wrought, 
I  supplicate  for  thy  control ; 
But  in  the  quietness  of  thought: 
35 


ROMANS  [chap.  vi. 

Me  this  unchartered  freedom  tires, 
I  feel  the  weight  of  chance  desires ; 

My  hopes  no  more  must  change  their  name, 
I  long  for  a  repose  that  ever  is  the  same.' 
Wordsworth's  Ode  to  Duty. 


VI.  2  2.  Your  fruit  unto  holiness. 

*  T)Y  holiness,' says  Mr.  John  Morley,  'do 
^  we  not  mean  something  different  from 
virtue?  It  is  not  the  same  as  duty;  still 
less  is  it  the  same  as  religious  belief.  It  is  a 
name  for  an  inner  grace  of  nature,  an  instinct 
of  the  soul,  by  which,  though  knowing  of 
earthly  appetites  and  worldly  passions,  the 
spirit,  purifying  itself  of  these,  and  indepen- 
dent of  reason,  argument,  and  the  struggles  of 
the  will,  dwells  in  patient  and  confident  com- 
munion with  the  seen  and  the  unseen  Good.' 


VI.  23.  The  wages  of  sin  is  death. 

*  PJ^OR  the  present,  however,  consider  Long- 
-■-       champ ;  now  when  Lent  is  ending,  and 
the  glory  of  Paris  and  France  has  gone  forth 
36 


VER.  23]  ROMANS 

as  in  annual  wont.  Not  to  assist  at  Tenebris 
masses,  but  to  sun  itself  and  show  itself,  and 
salute  the  Young  Spring.  Manifold,  bright- 
tinted,  glittering  with  gold ;  all  through  the 
Bois  du  Boulogne,  in  long-drawn,  variegated 
rows ; — like  long-drawn  living  flower-borders, 
tulips,  dahlias,  lilies  of  the  valley ;  all  in 
their  moving  flower-pots  (of  new-gilt  car- 
riages) ;  pleasure  of  the  eye  and  the  pride  of 
life.  So  rolls  and  dances  the  Procession : 
steady,  of  firm  assurance,  as  if  it  rolled  on 
adamant  and  the  foundations  of  the  world; 
not  on  mere  heraldic  parchment  —  under 
which  smoulders  a  lake  of  fire.  Dance  on, 
ye  foolish  ones;  ye  sought  not  wisdom, 
neither  have  ye  found  it.  Ye  and  your 
fathers  have  sown  the  wind,  ye  shall  reap  the 
whirlwind.  Was  it  not,  from  of  old,  written  : 
The  wages  of  sin  is  death  ?  ' — carlyle's 
French  Revolution  :  book  11.  vi. 


Compare  the  description  of   the   second 
last    of    Hogarth's    series    of    pictures,    in 
Manage  a  la  Mode^  given  by  Dr.  Brown  in 
37 


ROMANS  [chap.  vii. 

HorcR  SubsecivcB  (*  Notes  on  Art ' — Distrain- 
ing for  Rent). 

*  HTHAT  is  the  worst  of  the  wages  of  sin. 

•^  Sinners  cannot  pay  them  all — however 
willing,  however  passionately  desirous  even 
they  may  be  to  do  so.  Those  wages  are 
always  paid  in  part,  of  necessity  must  be,  by 
the  innocent  in  place  of  the  guilty.' 

LUCAS  MALET. 

VII.  if.  The  law  hath  dominion  over 
a  man. 

*  "PVER  since  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans 
^-^  was  written,  it  has  become  a  Christian 
commonplace  that,  in  all  moral  experience, 
I  am  divided  against  myself;  inwardly  identi- 
fied with  a  superior  call  that  beckons  me  j 
outwardly  liable  to  take  my  lot  with  the  in- 
ferior inclination  that  clings  to  me.  In  such 
conflict,  whatever  be  its  issue,  the  real  self  is 
always  that  which  votes  for  the  good ;  con- 
formably with  Plato's  rule,  that  no  man,  of 
his  own  will  (though,  possibly,  of  blind  im- 

38 


VER.  i]  ROMANS 

pulse),  ever  decides  for  the  worse.  If  I 
choose  aright,  the  previous  strife  is  laid  to 
rest,  and  my  nature  is  at  one  with  itself  and 
its  own  ends.  If  I  choose  amiss,  the  storm 
within  is  fiercer  than  before ;  I  rage  against 
my  own  temptation  ;  and  if  the  fact  be 
known,  I  am  ashamed  to  walk  abroad  and 
carry  about  so  false  an  image  of  myself.' 

MARTINEAU. 


*  T 1  rE  carry  private  and  domestick  enemies 
^  *  within,  public  and  more  hostile 
enemies  without.  The  devil  that  did  but 
buffet  St.  Paul,  plays  methinks  at  sharp  with 
me.  Let  me  be  nothing,  if  within  the  com- 
pass of  myself,  I  do  not  find  the  battle 
of  Lepanto,  passion  against  reason,  reason 
against  faith,  faith  against  the  devil,  and  my 
conscience  against  all.  There  is  another 
man  in  me  that 's  angry  with  me,  rebukes, 
commands,  and  dastards  me.' 

SIR  THOMAS  BROWNE. 


39 


ROMANS  [chap.  vii. 


VII.  9/  Sin  revived,  and  I  died. 

*  117  ACH  man  seems  to  learn  for  himself 
-^-^  from  the  beginning,  and  discovers 
little  by  little,  to  his  great  discomfort,  what 
should  have  been  known  long  ago  from  such 
as  Paul  and  Luther  and  Bunyan.  And  what 
is  this  ?  Why,  it  is  discovered  that  the  will 
has  no  power  over  the  affections.  While 
both  were  in  disorder,  while  a  man's  will  was 
half  for  God  and  half  for  independence  from 
God,  he  did  not  find  this  out  distinctly ;  he 
then  blamed  his  entire  nature.  But  now 
that  his  will  is  really  subdued,  he  begins  to 
discern  how  exceedingly  little  power  it  has 
over  his  affections,  and  to  regard  one  half 
only  of  his  nature  as  diseased.  He  desires 
to  speak  with  meekness ;  but  he  finds  him- 
self excited  and  bitter,  if  not  in  word,  yet  in 
heart.  He  desires  to  be  chaste,  and  his 
thoughts  become  impure.  He  desires  to 
worship  God  in  spirit ;  but  his  mind  wanders 
into  countless  imaginations.  He  desires  to 
be  contented;  and  his  heart  swells  with  a 
40 


VER.  1 8]  ROMANS 

foolish  ambition.  He  desires  to  be  humble ; 
but  he  is  mortified  that  somebody  gave  him 
too  little  honour.  He  desires  to  be  simple ; 
yet  he  said  something  to  make  himself 
admired.  .  .  .  But  the  single-minded  soul  is 
distinguished  by  the  promptitude  of  its  as- 
piration after  better  success,  the  moment 
that  failure  is  discerned.  Not  merely  is 
there  vexation  at  the  failure  (which  might 
denote  mortified  pride),  but  an  instant 
breathing  to  God,  "  Oh  that  my  heart  were 
as  Thy  heart,  and  that  wholly  ! "  and  this 
instantly  renews  the  soul's  intercourse  with 
God,  so  that  complaint  is  not  self-reproach.' 

F.  W.  NEWMAN. 


VII.  18/  How  to  perform  that  which 
is  eood  I  find  not. 

o 

SOUL  confined  by  bars  and  bands. 
Cries  help !    O  help !   and  wrings  her 
hands, 
Blinded  her  eyes,  bleeding  her  breast, 
Nor  pardon  finds,  nor  balm  of  rest. 
41 


'A 


ROMANS  [chap.  vii. 

Ceaseless  she  paces  to  and  fro, 
O  heartsick  days  !     O  nights  of  woe  ! 
Nor  hand  of  friend,  nor  loving  face, 
Nor  favour  comes,  nor  word  of  grace. 

It  was  not  I  who  sinned  the  sin. 
The  ruthless  body  dragged  me  in ; 
Though  long  I  strove  courageously. 
The  body  was  too  much  for  me. 

Dear  prisoned  soul,  bear  up  a  space, 
For  soon  or  late  the  certain  grace ; 
To  set  thee  free  and  bear  thee  home, 
The  heavenly  pardoner  death  shall  come.' 

WALT  WHITMAN. 


VII.  19.  For  the  good  which  I  would 
I  do  not,  but  the  evil  which  I  would 
not,  that  I  practise. 

*  T  T  E  knows  a  baseness  in  his  blood, 
-■--'-     At  such  strange  war  with  something 

good. 
He  may  not  do  the  thing  he  would.* 

TENNYSON. 

42 


VER.  23]  ROMANS 

VII.  23.   Thelawof  sin  in  my  members. 

*T17HEN  the  Lorelei  in  Heine's  poem  is 
^  ^  sitting  on  the  rock  combing  her  yellow 
hair  with  a  golden  comb,  or  singing  to  the 
magic  harp,  with  the  music  of  the  Rhine  for 
the  contrabasso,  we  fancy  she  is  too  naive  and 
pretty  not  to  be  as  good  as  she  looks.  The 
boatman,  who  steers  that  way,  and  is  caught 
in  the  whirlpool,  will  have  another  story  to 
tell.  So  it  is  with  our  aesthetic,  scientific, 
curled  and  scented  paganism,  which  cannot 
endure  the  harsh  Christian  doctrine,  or  its 
antiquated  doctrine  about  the  law  of  sin  in 
our  members.' 

DR.  WILLIAM  BARRY. 


*  IVT  OW  it  seems  some  unseen  monster  lays 
■'"^      His  vast  and  filthy  hands  upon  my 

will. 
Wrenching  it  backward  into  his,  and  spoils 

My  bliss  in  being.' 

TENNYSON,  Lucvetius. 

43 


ROMANS  [chap.  vii. 

VII.    23.    I    see    another    law   in    my 
members. 

*  "PAUL  did  not  go  to  Adam  and  Genesis 
-■-  to  get  the  essential  testimony  about 
sin.  He  went  to  experience  for  it.  "I  see^^  he 
says,  "  a  law  in  my  members  fighting  against 
the  law  of  my  mind,  and  bringing  me  into 
captivity."  This  is  the  essential  testimony 
respecting  sin  to  Paul — this  rise  of  sin  in  his 
own  heart  and  in  the  heart  of  all  the  men 
who  hear  him.  At  quite  a  later  stage  in  his 
conception  of  the  religious  life,  in  quite  a 
subordinate  capacity,  and  for  the  mere  pur- 
pose of  illustration,  comes  in  the  allusion  to 
Adam  and  to  what  is  called  original  sin.' 

MATTHEW  ARNOLD. 


*  /^NE  of  my  most  formidable  enemies  was 
^^  a  vivid  and  ill-trained  imagination. 
Against  outward  and  inward  evils  of  this 
kind  there  existed  a  very  powerful  love  of 
truth  and  purity,  and  great  approval  of  and 
delight  in  the  law  of  God.  The  antagonism 
44 


VER.  24]  ROMANS 

of  these  two  forces  between  the  ages  of 
twenty  and  twenty-six  went  nigh  to  threaten 
my  reason.  At  length  my  deeply  wounded 
conscience  was  pacified  by  faith  in  Christ, 
and  a  life  of  great  happiness  commenced, 
which  still  continues.' 

SMETHAM. 


VII.  24.   O  wretched  man  that  I  am  ! 

'  T  1  rHEN  we  read  the  lives  of  those  men 
^  *  who  have  had  the  deepest  spiritual 
experience,  to  whom,  on  the  one  hand,  the 
infinity  of  duty,  the  commandment  exceeding 
broad,  and,  on  the  other,  the  depth  of  their 
own  spiritual  poverty,  has  been  most  laid 
bare — we  find  them  confessing  that  the 
seventh  chapter  of  Romans  describes  their 
condition  more  truly  than  any  philosopher 
has  done.  With  their  whole  hearts  they 
have  felt  St.  Paul's  "  O  wretched  man  that 
I  am  !  who  shall  deliver  me  ?  "  Such  are 
the  men  who,  having  themselves  come  out 
45 


ROMANS  [chap.  vii. 

of  great  deeps,  become  the  spirit-quickeners 
of  their  fellow  men,  the  revivers  of  a  deeper 
morality.  To  all  such  there  is  a  grim  irony 
in  the  philosophic  ideas  when  confronted 
with  their  own  actuals.  So  hopelessly  wide 
seems  the  gap  between  their  own  condition 
and  the  "  thou  shalt "  of  the  commandment. 
Not  dead  diagrams  of  virtue  such  men  want, 
but  living  powers  of  righteousness.  They 
do  not  quarrel  with  the  moralists'  ideal, 
though  it  is  neither  the  saints'  nor  the 
poets'.  They  find  no  fault  with  his  account 
of  the  faculty  which  discerns  that  ideal, 
though  it  is  not  exactly  theirs.  But  what 
they  ask  is  not  the  faculty  to  know  the 
right,  but  the  power  to  be  righteous.  It 
is  because  this  they  find  not,  because  what 
reason  commands,  the  will  cannot  be  or  do, 
that  they  are  filled  with  despair.  As  well, 
they  say,  bid  us  lay  our  hand  upon  the 
stars  because  we  see  them,  as  realise  your 
ideal  of  virtue  because  we  discern  it.' 

PRI^XIPAL  SHAIRP. 


46 


VER.  24-25]  ROMANS 

VII.  24-25.  O  wretched  man  that  I 
am !  who  shall  deliver  me  from  the 
body  of  this  death  ?  I  thank  God 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

*  "DUT  oh  !  this  it  is  that  which  presseth  me 
^-^  down  and  paineth  me.  Jesus  Christ 
in  his  saints  sitteth  neighbour  with  our  ill 
second,  corruption,  deadness,  idleness,  pride, 
lust,  worldliness,  self-love,  security,  false- 
hood, and  a  world  of  more  the  like,  which  I 
find  in  me,  that  are  daily  doing  violence  to 
the  new  man.  Oh !  but  we  have  cause  to 
carry  low  sails,  and  to  cleave  fast  to  free 
grace,  free,  free  grace  !  Blessed  be  our  Lord 
that  ever  that  way  was  found  out.' 

SAMUEL  RUTHERFORD. 

*  nPHERE   have    been    many   in   all   ages, 

-■-  whether  nursed  in  Christianity  or  no, 
whether  they  have  been  left  unacquainted 
with  the  New  Testament  or  whether  it  has 
remained  to  them  not  an  unknown  or  in- 
credible but  an  unmeaning  tale,  to  whom  at 
47 


ROMANS  [chap.  viii. 

some  crisis  of  their  lives  the  record  of  St. 
Paul's  deliverance  has  come  as  life  from  the 
dead.  The  account  of  his  case  is  also  the 
account  of  theirs.  A  new  man  has  been 
forming  within  them — the  sign  of  its  presence 
being  perhaps  the  more  conscious  antagonism 
of  the  old  or  a  more  wilful  adherence  to 
some  mode  of  life  or  rule  of  action  which 
has  long  ceased  to  satisfy — but  till  it  has 
received  some  assurance  of  divine  recog- 
nition and  help,  it  is  weak  from  ignorance 
of  its  proper  strength,  and  is  merely  a  source 
of  inward  unrest.  In  the  gospel  history,  as 
interpreted  by  St.  Paul,  it  finds  the  needed 
assurance.' 

T.  H.  GREEN. 


VIII.  I.  There  is  therefore  now  no 
condemnation  to  them  that  are  in 
Christ  Jesus. 

James   Smetham,   in  his  Letters  (p.   208), 
speaks   of  having  read    a  sermon    by 
Archbishop  Manning.     'With  this  school  of 
48 


VER.  I]  ROMANS 

theologians  there  is  no  doubt  a  strong  sense- 
of  the  evil  of  sin.  But  it  is  like  the  sense  of 
sin  which  the  lost  have  in  its  fulness ;  Merlin 
with  his  hand  on  his  aching  heart,  pacing 
for  ever  in  enchanted  forests,  crushed,  and 
haunted,  and  vexed  for  ever  by  dim  un- 
appeasable foreshadowings  of  doom — whis- 
pers of  the  inexpiable,  the  irretrievable,  the 
gone,  the  lost.  .  .  . 

'  This  is  the  mere  enchanter's  gospel.  Oh, 
how  different  from  the  gospel  of  our  Lord 
and  Saviour.  I  have  had  enough  of  the 
presentment  of  sin,  enough  of  the  miserable 
wandering  in  the  mazes  of  the  dark  woods 
of  moral  metaphysics,  enough  of  the  terrible 
unrolling  of  the  scrolls  of  doom.  Analyse 
your  sins?  No,  nail  them  to  the  cross. 
Weep  tears  of  blood,  sweat  drops  of  oozing 
agony  in  secret  chambers,  in  lonely  walks  ? 
Oh  no — 

Jesus  my  salvation  is  ; 

Hence  my  doubts,  away  my  fears ; 

Jesus  is  become  my  peace.' 


49 


ROMANS  [chap.  viii. 

VIII.   2.     The  law  of  the  Spirit  of  life. 

*Know 
That    He   who    gave   us   life    ordained   us 

law.' 
*  Law !    and   is   law   then   but   to   bind   and 

freeze  ? 
By  law  the  lightning  spurts,  and  the   earth 

quakes, 
And   the   spring   surges   through  a  million 

buds; 
And    law  is   filled  with  rushings  and  with 

thunder.' 

STEPHEN  PHILLIPS, 

The  Sin  of  David. 


VIII.   3-4.     That  the  righteousness  of 
the  law  might  be  fulfilled  in  us. 

*  T7ROM  the  people  of  the  law  arises  the 
-'-  gospel.  The  sense  of  duty,  when 
awakened,  awakens  not  only  the  religion  of 
the  law,  but  in  the  end  the  other  religious 
intuitions  which  lie  round  about  it.  The 
50 


VER.  5]  ROMANS 

faith  of  Christendom  has  arisen  not  from  a 
great  people,  but  from  'the  least  of  all 
people' — from  the  people  whose  anxious 
legalism  was  a  noted  contrast  to  the  easy, 
impulsive  life  of  pagan  nations.  In  modern 
language,  conscience  is  the  converting  intui- 
tion— that  which  turns  men  from  the  world 
without  to  the  world  within  —  from  the 
things  which  are  seen  and  the  realities  which 
are  not  seen.  In  a  character  like  Shelley's, 
where  this  haunting,  abiding,  oppressive 
moral  feeling  is  wanting  or  defective,  the 
religious  belief  in  an  Almighty  God  which 
springs  out  of  it  is  likely  to  be  defective  like- 
wise.' BAGEHOT. 

VIII.  5  /  For  they  that  are  of  the 
flesh  do  mind  the  things  of  the  flesh  : 
but  they  that  are  of  the  Spirit  the 
things  of  the  Spirit 

*  T_T  OW  prompt  we  are  to  satisfy  the  hunger 

■'■  -''     and  thirst  of  our  bodies  \  how  slow  to 

satisfy  the  hunger  and  thirst  of  our  souls\ 

Indeed,  we  would-be  practical  folks  cannot 

51 


ROMANS  [chap.  viii. 

use  this  word  without  blushing,  because  of 
our  infidelity,  having  starved  this  substance 
almost  to  a  shadow.  We  feel  it  to  be  as  ab- 
surd as  if  a  man  were  to  break  forth  into  a 
eulogy  on  his  dog,  who  hasn't  any.  An 
ordinary  man  will  work  every  day  for  a  year 
at  shovelling  dirt  to  support  his  body,  or  a 
family  of  bodies ;  but  he  is  an  extraordinary 
man  who  will  work  a  whole  day  in  a  year  for 
the  support  of  his  soul.  But  he  alone  is  the 
truly  enterprising  and  practical  man  who  suc- 
ceeds in  maintaining  his  soul  here.  Have 
we  not  an  everlasting  life  to  get  ?  and  is  not 
that  the  only  excuse  at  last  for  eating,  drink- 
ing, sleeping,  or  even  carrying  an  umbrella 
when  it  rains  ? '  thoreau. 

VIII.  7.    The  carnal   mind  is  enmity 
against  God. 

«  "VJ  O  deeper  cleft  divides  human  spirits  than 
■*■  ^  that  which  separates  the  faith  possible 
to  men,  for  whom  evil  means  a  mere  negation, 
a  mere  shadow,  a  form  of  ignorance,  from 
that  which  regards  it  as  an  actual  existence,  a 
52 


VER.  1 6]  ROMANS 

real  antagonism  to  good.  .  .  .  Almost  all  other 
antitheses  which  divide  human  spirits  either 
involve  or  spring  from  this  contrast.' 

MISS  WEDGWOOD. 

VIII.   1 6.     The   Spirit   itself    beareth 
witness  with  our  spirit. 

*  IVr  OW  we  must  with  sorrow  confess  that  this 
-'■  ^  doctrine  of  the  Spirit's  dwelling  in  the 
heart  of  God's  servants,  is  much  discounten- 
anced of  late.  .  .  .  But  what  if  the  apes  in 
India,  finding  a  glow-worm,  mistook  it  to  be 
true  fire,  and  heaping  much  combustible 
matter  about  it,  hoped  by  their  blowing  of  it, 
thence  to  kindle  a  flame ;  I  say,  what  if  that 
laughter-causing  animal,  that  mirth-making 
animal,  deceived  itself,  doth  it  thence  follow 
that  there  is  no  true  fire  at  all  ?  And  what  if 
some  fanatics  by  usurpation  have  entitled 
their  brain-sick  fancies  to  be  so  many  illumi- 
nations of  the  Spirit,  must  we  presently  turn 
Sadducees  in  this  point,  and  deny  that  there 
is  any  Spirit  at  all  ?     God  forbid  ! ' 

THOMAS  FULLER. 

53 


ROMANS  [chap.  viii. 

VIII.  19.  The  earnest  expectation  of 
the  creature  waiteth  for  the  mani- 
festation of  the  sons  of  God. 

•  pELLUCID  thus  in  saintly  trance, 
-^       Thus  mute  in  expectation, 
What  waits  the  earth  ?     Deliverance  ? 

Ah  no  !     Transfiguration  ! 

She  dreams  of  that  "  new  earth  "  divine, 

Conceived  of  seed  immortal ; 
She  sings,  "  Not  mine  the  holier  shrine, 

Yet  mine  the  steps  and  portal ! " ' 

AUBREY  DE  VERE. 

*  T  N  this  broad  earth  of  ours, 

-*-     Amid  the  measureless  grossness  and  the 
slag, 

Enclosed  and  safe  within  its  central  heart, 

Nestles  the  seed  perfection.  .  .  . 

Give  me,  O  God,  to  sing  that  thought, 

Give  me,  give  him  or  her  I  love  this  quench- 
less faith 

In  Thy  ensemble.     Whatever  else  withheld, 
withhold  not  from  us 
54 


VER.  19-21]  ROMANS 

Belief  in  plan  of  Thee  enclosed  in  Time 

and  Space, 
Health,  peace,  salvation  universal. 
Is  it  a  dream  ? 

Nay  but  the  lack  of  it  the  dream, 
And  failing  it  life's  lore  and  wealth  a 

dream, 
And  all  the  world  a  dream.' 

WALT  WHITMAN. 


VIII.  19-21.  The  creation  itself  shall 
be  delivered  from  the  bondage  of 
corruption. 

•   A  ND  Thou,  O  King,  shalt  take  Thine  own 
^^     Triumphant ;  and,  Thy  place  fulfilled, 

The  flaw  of  Nature  shall  be  healed. 
And  joyous  round  Thy  central  throne 

I  see  the  vocal  ages  roll. 
And  all  the  human  universe 
Like  some  great  symphony  rehearse 

The  order  of  its  perfect  whole ; 
55 


ROMANS  [chap.  viii. 

And  smile,  with  dazzled  wisdom  dumb, 
— Remembering  all  I  said  and  sung — 
That  man  asks  more  of  mortal  tongue 

Than  skill  to  say,  "  Thy  Kingdom  come." ' 

SYDNEY  DOBELL. 

*  TT  was  an  ancient  saying  of  the  Persians, 
^  that  the  waters  rush  from  the  mountains 
and  hurry  forth  into  all  the  lands  to  find  the 
Lord  of  the  Earth;  and  the  flame  of  the 
fire,  when  it  awakes,  gazes  no  more  upon  the 
ground,  but  mounts  heavenward  to  seek  the 
Lord  of  Heaven ;  and  here  and  there  the 
Earth  has  built  great  watch-towers  of  the 
mountains,  and  they  lift  their  heads  far  into 
the  sky,  and  gaze  ever  upward  and  around, 
to  see  if  the  Judge  of  the  World  comes 
not.  Thus  in  Nature  herself,  without  man, 
there  lies  a  waiting  and  hoping,  a  looking 
and  yearning,  after  an  unknown  some- 
thing. Yes ;  when  above  there,  where  the 
mountain  lifts  its  head  above  all  others, 
that  it  may  be  alone  with  the  clouds  and 
storms  of  Heaven,  the  lonely  eagle  looks 
forth  into  the  grey  dawn,  to  see  if  the  day 
56 


VER.  19-21]  ROMANS 

comes  not;  when  by  the  mountain  torrent 
the  brooding  raven  listens  to  hear  if  the 
chamois  is  returning  from  his  nightly  pasture 
in  the  valley ;  and  when  the  soon  uprising 
sun  calls  out  the  spicy  odours  of  the  thousand 
flowers — the  Alpine  flowers,  with  heaven's 
deep  blue,  and  the  blush  of  sunset  on  their 
leaves — then  there  awake  in  Nature,  and 
the  soul  of  man  can  see  and  comprehend 
them,  an  expectation  and  a  longing  for  a 
future  revelation  of  God's  majesty.' 

From  Longfellow's  Hyperion^  vi. 


^O  Clough  writes  of  a  late  August  morn 
^     in  a  country  lane  : — 

'  This  quelling  silence  as  of  eve  or  night, 
Wherein  earth  (feeling  as  a  mother  may 
After  her  travail's  latest,  bitterest  throes) 
Looks  up,  so  seemeth  it,  one  half  repose, 
One  half  in  efl"ort,  straining,  suffering  still.' 


57 


ROMANS  [chap.  viii. 

VIII.  2  2.  For  we  know  that  the  .whole 
creation  groaneth  and  travaileth  in 
pain  together  until  now. 

A /T  AZZINI,  in  his  essay  on  Carlyle,  uses 
'*'■*•     this  verse  thus  : — 

'Whatever  we  may  do,  the  words,  The 
whole  creation  groaneth^  of  the  apostle  whom 
I  love  to  quote,  will  be  verified  most  forcibly 
in  the  choicest  intellects,  whensoever  an 
entire  order  of  things  and  ideas  shall  be  ex- 
hausted ;  whensoever,  in  Mr.  Carlyle's  phrase, 
there  shall  exist  no  longer  any  social  faith.' 

See  Keble's  lines  on  *  The  Fourth  Sunday 
after  Trinity.' 

*  TN  this  cottage  opposite  the  violet  bank 
-*-  they  had  smallpox  once,  the  only  case  I 
recollect  in  the  hamlet — the  old  men  used  to 
say  everybody  had  it  when  they  were  young ; 
this  was  the  only  case  in  my  time,  and  they 
recovered  quickly  without  any  loss,  nor  did 
the  disease  spread.  .  .  .  That  terrible  dis- 
S8 


VER.  2  2]  ROMANS 

ease,  however,  seemed  to  quite  spoil  the 
violet  bank  opposite,  and  I  never  picked  one 
there  afterwards.  There  is  something  in 
disease  so  destructive,  as  it  were,  to  flowers.' 

RICHARD  JEFFERIES. 


*  nPHE  whole  creation  groaneth  and  travail- 
■*-  eth  together.  It  is  the  common  and 
the  godlike  law  of  life.  The  browsers,  the 
biters,  the  barkers,  the  hairy  coats  of  field 
and  forest,  the  squirrel  in  the  oak,  the 
thousand-footed  creeper  in  the  dust,  as  they 
share  with  us  the  gift  of  life,  share  with  us  the 
love  of  an  ideal ;  strive  like  us — like  us  are 
tempted  to  grow  weary  of  the  struggle — to 
do  well ;  like  us  receive  at  times  unmerited 
refreshment,  visitings  of  support,  return  of 
courage ;  and  are  condemned  like  us  to  be 
crucified  between  that  double  law  of  the 
members  and  the  will.  .  .  .  And  as  we  dwell, 
we  living  things,  in  our  isle  of  terror  under 
the  imminent  hand  of  death,  God  forbid  it 
should  be  man  the  erected,  the  reasoner, 
59 


ROMANS  [chap.  viii. 

the  wise  in  his  own  eyes — God  forbid  it  should 
be  man  that  wearies  in  well-doing,  that 
despairs  of  unrewarded  effort,  or  utters  the 
language  of  complaint.  Let  it  be  enough 
for  faith,  that  the  whole  creation  groans  in 
mortal  frailty,  strives  with  unconquerable 
constancy  :  surely  not  all  in  vain.' 

R.  L.  STEVENSON,  Pulvis  et  Uvibra. 


VIII.  23.     We  groan  within  ourselves. 

'  T  T  is  not  merely  what  we  have  done — not 
-'"  merely  the  posthumous  fruit  of  our 
activity  which  entitles  us  to  honourable 
recognition  after  death,  but  also  our  striving 
itself,  and  especially  our  unsuccessful  striving 
— the  shipwrecked,  fruitless,  but  great-souled 
will  to  do.' 

HEINE. 


On  this  validity  and  value  of  aspiration, 
see  also  Browning's  lines  in  Rabbi  Ben  Ezra^ 
beginning,  '  Not  on  the  vulgar  mass.' 
60 


VER.  25]  ROMANS 

*  TTOW  happy  is  their  condition  who  have 
-'■  -*■  God  for  their  interpreter !  who  not 
only  understands  what  they  do,  but  what 
they  would  say.  Daniel  could  tell  the  mean- 
ing of  the  dream  which  Nebuchadnezzar 
had  forgotten.  God  knows  the  meaning  of 
these  groans  which  never  as  yet  knew  their 
own  meaning,  and  understands  the  sense  of 
these  sighs  which  never  understood  them- 
selves.' THOMAS  FULLER. 

VIII.  25.     Then  do  we  with  patience 
wait  for  it. 

*  pATIENCE  must  dwell  with  Love,  for 
■*-        Love  and  Sorrow 

Have  pitched  their  tent  together  here ; 
Love  all  alone  will  build  a  house  to-morrow, 

And  Sorrow  not  be  near. 
To-day  for  Love's  sake  hope,  still   hope  in 
sorrow ; 

Rest  in  her  shade  and  hold  her  dear ; 
To-day  she  nurses  thee  ;  and  lo  !  to-morrow 

Love  only  will  be  near.' 

C.  G.  ROSSETTL 

61 


ROMANS  [chap.  viii. 

VIII.   26-27.    ^e  know   not  what  we 
should  pray  for. 

*  A  ND  on  another  night,  I  know  not,  God 
^  knows,  whether  in  me  or  near  me,  with 
most  eloquent  words  which  I  heard,  and 
could  not  understand,  except  at  the  end  of 
the  speech,  one  spoke  as  follows  :  "  He  who 
gave  His  life  for  thee  is  He  who  speaks  in 
thee";  and  so  I  awoke  full  of  joy.  And 
again  I  saw  Him  praying  in  me,  and  He  was 
as  it  were  within  my  body  and  I  heard  above 
me,  that  is,  above  the  inner  man,  and  there 
He  was  praying  mightily  with  groanings. 
And  meanwhile  I  was  stupefied  and  aston- 
ished, and  pondered  who  it  could  be  that 
was  praying  in  me.  But  at  the  end  of  the 
prayer  He  so  spoke  as  if  He  were  the  Spirit. 
And  so  I  awoke  and  remembered  that  the 
Apostle  says,  "  The  Spirit  helps  the  infir- 
mities of  our  prayers.  For  we  know  not  what 
we  should  pray  for  as  we  ought ;  but  the  Spirit 
himself  asketh  for  us  with  unspeakable 
groanings."' 

ST.  Patrick's  Confessions. 
62 


VER.  28]  ROMANS 

VIII.  27.  He  that  searcheth  the  hearts 
knoweth  what  is  the  mind  of  the 
Spirit. 

*  TN  prayer  we  need  not  ask  whether  our 
^  words  convey  a  correct  theological  con- 
ception. They  are  not  meant  to  be  heard  of 
men.  "  He  that  searcheth  the  hearts  know- 
eth what  is  the  mind  of  the  spirit."  So  long 
as  our  prayers  express  the  effort  after  a 
higher  life  recognised  as  proceeding  from, 
and  only  to  be  satisfied  by,  the  grace  of  God, 
the  theological  formulae  on  which  they  are 
clothed  are  of  little  importance.' 

T.  H.  GREEN. 

VIII.  28.  We  know  that  all  things 
work  together  for  good  to  them  that 
love  God. 

*  TF  a  man  loves  God  truly,  and  has  no  will 
■^  except  to  do  God's  will,  the  whole  force 
of  the  Rhine  river  may  rush  at  him  and  yet 
will  not  disturb  him  or  interrupt  his  peace.' 

TAULER. 

63 


ROMANS  [chap.  viii. 

*  A  ND  methought  that  beauty  and  terror 
^^     are  only  one,  not  two  ; 

And    the    world    has   room   for  love,    and 

death,  and  thunder,  and  dew; 
And  all  the  sinews  of  hell  slumber  in  summer 

air; 
And  the  face  of  God  is  a  rock,  but  the  face 

of  the  rock  is  fair.' 

R.  L.  STEVENSON. 

A  FEW  days  before  his  death,  Amiel  wrote 
-^^  in  his  journal :  '  Destiny  has  two  ways 
of  crushing  us — by  refusing  our  wishes  and 
by  fulfilling  them.  But  he  who  only  wills 
what  God  wills,  escapes  both  catastrophes. 
"  All  things  work  together  for  his  good."  ' 

*  A  S  blows  from  sculptor's  mallet  on 
-^^     The  marble's  dawning  face, 
Such  are  God's  Yea  and  JVay  unto 

The  spirit's  growing  grace  ; 
So  work  His  making  hands  with  what 
Does  and  does  not  take  place.' 

GEORGE  MACDONALD. 
64 


VER.  29-30]  ROMANS 

*  'T'HE  saints  seem  to  have  the  worst  of  it 
-*-  (for  apprehension  can  make  a  lie  of 
Christ  and  His  love) ;  but  it  is  not  so. 
Providence  is  not  rolled  upon  unequal  and 
crooked  wheels ;  all  things  work  together  for 
the  good  of  those  who  love  God  and  are 
called  according  to  His  purpose.  Ere  it  be 
long,  we  shall  see  the  white  side  of  God's 
providence.' 

SAMUEL  RUTHERFORD. 


VIII.  29-30. 

A  1[  rHEN  Henri  Perreyve  was  on  his  death- 
^  ^  bed,  he  asked  his  friend  Abbe  Ber- 
nard to  '  read  the  eighth  chapter  of  Romans 
to  him,  a  passage  of  Holy  Scripture  in  which 
he  had  been  wont  to  delight  to  meditate  at 
the  foot  of  the  Cross  in  the  Coliseum  at 
Rome.  Just  before,  without  any  further 
explanation  of  what  was  troubling  him,  he 
had  indicated  some  inward  trial  by  praying 
audibly  before  me,  Zord,  increase  our  faith. 
E  65 


ROMANS  [chap.  viii. 

Doubtless  it  was  with  the  object  of  soothing 
this  trouble  of  his  soul  that  Henri  sought  to 
hear  anew  Saint  Paul's  glorious  words  of 
immortal  hope  for  those  whose  whole  faith 
is  in  Jesus  Christ.  ...  At  the  words,  Whom 
He  did  predestinate^  them  He  also  called^  and 
whom  He  called^  them  He  also  justified^  and 
whom  He  justified^  them  He  also  glorified^  I 
looked  up  at  my  friend  to  see  what  impres- 
sion these  words,  which  stirred  my  soul  to 
its  very  depth,  were  making  upon  his  soul. 
Our  eyes  met,  tears  filled  those  of  both ;  we 
pressed  one  another's  hand  silently,  and  I 
went  on.  But  each  word  fed  the  strong 
emotion  which  well-nigh  overcame  us.  Jesus 
Christ  was  indeed  with  us.  He  was  speaking 
to  us,  and  our  hearts  burned  within  us.  I 
could  scarcely  go  on  reading  the  sacred 
words ;  Henri  cried  quietly.  But  at  the  last 
words,  Neither  life  nor  death  .  .  .  shall 
be  able  to  separate  us  from  the  love  of  God, 
our  hitherto  repressed  feeling  broke  forth; 
our  tears  became  sobs,  and  Henri,  squeezing 
my  hand,  said,  "  Oh,  leave  me  alone  with 
God !  a  de7?iain." ' 

66 


VER.  31]  ROMANS 

VIII.  31.   If  God  be  for  us,  who  can  be 

against  us  ? 

*  TF  at  any  time  unbelief  steals  over  your 
-^  heart — if  you  forget  the  hand  of  the  all- 
tender  gracious  Father  of  Jesus  and  of  your 
soul — you  will  be  crying  out,  All  these  things 
are  against  me.  But  ah  !  how  soon  you  will 
find  that  everything  in  your  history,  except 
sin,  has  been  for  you.  Every  wave  of 
trouble  has  been  wafting  you  to  the  sunny 
shores  of  a  sinless  eternity.  Only  believe. 
Give  unlimited  credit  to  our  God.' 

m'cheyne,  in  a  private  letter. 


*'T^HERE  is  nothing  so  crushing  to  moral 
-*-  effort,  as  the  suspicion  that  however 
we  may  strive  to  live  rightly,  the  great  forces 
of  the  universe  may  be  after  all  against  us. 
But  here  the  Atonement  and  the  Resurrec- 
tion come  in.  They  tell  us  that  this 
suspicion  is  groundless — that  God  is  not 
against  us,  but  on  our  side,  that  the  faintest 
desire  to  be  better  He  sympathises  with, 
and  will  help ;  that  even  on  the  heart  where 

67 


ROMANS  [chap.  viii. 

no  such  desire  is  yet  stirring,  He  still  looks 
tenderly,  that  He  wills  its  salvation,  and  has 
proved  that  He  really  and  deeply  wills  it  by  a 
self-sacrificing  love  great  beyond  imagina- 
tion. Can  any  strength  for  moral  im- 
provement be  imagined  equal  to  this  ?  ' 

PRINCIPAL  SHAIRP. 


VIII.  35.  Who  shall  separate  us  from 
the  love  of  Christ  ? 

*  \  1  ^E  are  apt  to  speak  as  if  it  were  the 
*  ^  natural  body  which  separates  the 
human  spirit  from  its  Maker.  .  .  .  Many 
things  may  hide  God  from  us,  one  thing 
only  can  separate  us  from  Him — unresisted, 
unrepented  sin.' 

DORA  GREENWELL. 

/^HRIST,  by  His  death  and  resurrec- 
^*^  tion,  says  Coleridge  in  his  Religious 
Musings — Christ 

*  First  by  Fear  uncharmed  the  drowsing 
soul. 
Till  of  its  nobler  nature  it  'gan  feel 
68 


VER.  35]  ROMANS 

Dim   recollections;    and   thence   soared   to 

Hope, 
Strong  to  believe  whate'er  of  mystic  good 
The  Eternal  dooms  for  His  immortal  sons.* 


'\/E  have  now,  madam,'  wrote  Samuel 
-*-  Rutherford  to  Lady  Kenmure,  '  a  sick- 
ness before  you  ;  and  also  after  that  a  death. 
God  give  you  eyes  to  see  through  sickness 
and  death,  and  to  see  something  beyond 
death.  I  doubt  not  but  that  if  hell  were 
betwixt  you  and  Christ,  as  a  river  which 
ye  behoved  to  cross  ere  ye  could  come  at 
Him,  ye  would  willingly  put  in  your  foot, 
and  make  through  to  be  at  Him,  upon  hope 
that  He  would  come  in  Himself,  in  the 
deepest  of  the  river,  and  lend  you  His  hand. 
Now,  I  believe  your  hell  is  dried  up,  and 
ye  have  only  these  two  shallow  brooks, 
sickness  and  death,  to  pass  through;  and 
ye  have  also  a  promise  that  Christ  shall  do 
more  than  meet  you,  even  that  He  shall 
come  Himself,  and  go  with  you  foot  for 
foot,  yea,  and  bear  you  in  His  arms.    O  then ! 

69 


ROMANS  [chap.  viii. 

O  then !  for  the  joy  that  is  set  before  you ; 
for  the  love  of  the  Man  (who  is  also  *'  God 
over  all,  blessed  for  ever ")  that  is  standing 
upon  the  shore  to  welcome  you,  run  your 
race  with  patience.' 


VIII.  37.  More  than  conquerors. 

'  \  7'ICTORY  is  not  a  name  strong  enough 
^  for  such  a  scene'  (Nelson,  on  the 
Battle  of  the  Nile). — '  Be  inspired  with  the 
belief  that  life  is  a  great  and  noble  calling ; 
not  a  mean  and  grovelling  thing  that  we  are 
to  shuffle  through,  as  we  can,  but  an  elevated 
and  noble  destiny.' 

GLADSTONE. 


*  "\T  O  coward  soul  is  mine, 
-'■  ^      No   trembler   in    the   world's   storm- 
troubled  sphere : 
I  see  Heaven's  glories  shine. 
And  faith  shines  equal,  arming  me  from  fear. 

O  God  within  my  breast. 
Almighty,  ever-present  Deity ! 
70 


VER.  38-39]  ROMANS 

Life — that  in  me  has  rest, 
As  I — undying  life — have  power  in  thee  ! 

With  wide-embracing  love 
Thy  spirit  animates  eternal  years, 

Pervades  and  broods  above, 
Changes,  sustains,  dissolves,  creates,  and  rears. 

EMILY  BRONTE. 


VIII.  38-39. 

*'T^HE  refutation  of  those  critics  who,  in 
-*-  their  analysis  of  the  power  of  literature, 
make  much  of  music  and  picture,  is  con- 
tained in  the  most  moving  passages  that 
have  found  utterance  from  man.  Consider 
the  intensity  of  a  saying  like  that  of  St. 
Paul :  "  For  I  am  persuaded  that  neither 
death,  nor  life,  nor  angels,  nor  principalities 
nor  powers,  nor  things  present,  nor  things  to 
come,  nor  height,  nor  depth,  nor  any  other 
creature,  shall  be  able  to  separate  us  from 
the  love  of  God,  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our 
Lord."  Do  these  verses  draw  their  power 
71 


ROMANS  [chap.  viii. 

from  a  skilful  arrangement  of  vowel  and 
consonant?  But  they  are  quoted  from  a 
translation,  and  can  be  translated  otherwise, 
well,  or  ill,  or  indifferently,  without  losing 
more  than  a  little  of  their  virtue.  Do  they 
impress  the  eye  by  opening  before  it  a 
prospect  of  vast  extent,  peopled  by  vague 
shapes  ?  On  the  contrary,  the  visual  embodi- 
ment of  the  ideas  suggested  kills  the  sense 
of  the  passage,  by  lowering  the  cope  of  the 
starry  heavens  to  the  measure  of  a  poplar- 
tree.  Death  and  life,  height  and  depth,  are 
conceived  by  the  apostle,  and  creation  thrown 
in  like  a  trinket,  only  that  they  may  lend 
emphasis  to  the  denial  that  is  the  soul  of  his 
purpose.  Other  arts  can  affirm,  or  seem  to 
affirm,  with  all  due  wealth  of  circumstance 
and  detail  .  .  .  literature  alone  can  deny, 
and  honour  the  denial  with  the  last  resources 
of  a  power  that  has  the  universe  for  its 
treasury.' 

w.  RALEIGH,  Style^  pp.  17-18. 


72 


VER.  39]  ROMANS 

^m-  35-39-  Who  shall  separate  us 
from  the  love  of  Christ  ? 

*  r\  THOU  of  dark  forebodings  drear, 
^^     O  thou  of  such  a  faithless  heart, 

Hast  thou  forgotten  what  thou  art. 
That  thou  hast  ventured  so  to  fear? 

No  weed  on  ocean's  bosom  cast, 
Borne  by  its  never-resting  foam. 
This  way  and  that,  without  a  home, 

Till  flung  on  some  bleak  shore  at  last : 

But  thou  the  lotus,  which  above 

Sway'd  here  and  there  by  wind  and  tide, 
Yet  still  below  doth  fix'd  abide 

Fast  rooted  in  the  Eternal  Love.' 

TRENCH. 

VIII.  39.  Neither  height  nor  depth  nor 
any  other  creature  shall  be  able  to 
separate  us  from  the  love  of  God 
which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord. 

*npHEN,'  says  Bunyan  {Grace  Abounding^ 
^      sec.  92),  describing  one  of  his  brighter 
moments,   'I   began   to   give   place   to  the 
73 


ROMANS  [chap.  ix. 

Word,  which,  with  power,  did  over  and  over 
make  this  joyful  sound  within  my  soul. 
Thou  art  my  Love,  thou  art  my  Love ;  and 
fiothing  shall  separate  me  from  my  Love ; 
and  with  that  Romans  viii.  39  came  into 
my  mind.  Now  was  my  heart  filled  full  of 
comfort  and  hope,  and  now  I  could  believe 
that  my  sins  should  be  forgiven  me ;  yea,  I 
was  now  so  taken  with  the  love  and  mercy 
of  God,  that  I  remember  I  could  not  tell 
how  to  contain  till  I  got  home.  I  thought 
I  could  have  spoken  of  His  Love,  and  have 
told  of  His  mercy  to  me,  even  to  the  very 
crows  that  sat  upon  the  ploughed  lands 
before  me,  had  they  been  capable  to  have 
understood  me. ' 


IX.  3.  I  could  wish  that  myself  were 
accursed  from  Christ  for  my  brethren, 
my  kinsmen  according  to  the  flesh. 

*  ^1 /"HAT  did  Paul  mean  ?     Accursed  from 
*  *       Christ  ?     What  could  he  mean  save 
that  he  was  willing  to  be  damned  to  save 
74 


VER.  3]  ROMANS 

those  whom  he  loved.  Why  not?  Why 
should  not  a  man  be  willing  to  be  damned 
for  others?  The  damnation  of  a  single  soul 
is  shut  up  in  itself,  and  may  be  the  means 
of  saving  not  only  others  but  their  children 
and  a  whole  race.  Damnation  !  .  .  .  "  And 
yet,  if  it  is  to  save — if  it  is  to  save  Robert," 
thought  Michael,  "  God  give  me  strength — I 
could  endure  it.  Did  not  the  Son  Himself 
venture  to  risk  the  wrath  of  the  Father  that 
He  might  redeem  man  ?  What  am  I  ?  What 
is  my  poor  self?  "  And  Michael  determined 
that  night  that  neither  his  life  in  this  world 
nor  in  the  next,  if  he  could  rescue  his  child, 
should  be  of  any  account.  .  .  .  He  questioned 
himself  and  his  oracle  further.  What  could 
Paul  mean  exactly?  God  could  not  curse 
him  if  he  did  no  wrong.  He  could  only 
mean  that  he  was  willing  to  sin  and  be 
punished  provided  Israel  might  live.  It  was 
lawful  then  to  tell  a  lie  or  to  perpetrate  any 
evil  deed  in  order  to  protect  his  child.' — 
From  MR.  HALE  white's  story  of  Michael 
Trevanion,  in  Miriam's  Schooling  and  Other 
Papers. 

75 


ROMANS  [chap.  ix. 

*  \/'0U  may  do,  for  reward,  something  that 
^  on  the  outside  looks  like  doing  good, 
but  it  is  not  doing  good,  because  the  will  is 
selfish — your  heart  is  set  on  your  own 
pleasure  and  comfort,  and  not  on  a  sub- 
stantial good  for  its  own  sake.  A  man  who 
really  thought  of  nothing  but  getting  safe  to 
heaven  would  be  as  bad  as  a  man  in  a  ship- 
wreck who  thought  of  nothing  but  getting 
himself  safe  into  a  boat.  There  are  a  few 
such  people,  I  daresay.  But,  of  course, 
most  people  are  better  than  they  make  out. 
When  they  speak  of  reward  and  punishment, 
they  do  not  mean  merely  pleasures  and 
pains ;  they  mean,  in  part  at  least,  the  good- 
ness which  causes  the  pleasure,  and  the 
badness  which  causes  the  pain.  We  can 
see  that  true  Christians  have  never  thought 
the  reward  the  chief  thing.  St.  Paul  was 
ready  to  give  up  his  own  reward,  to  be 
accursed  from  Christ,  if  that  would  save  the 
soul  he  loved.  And  to  go  from  great  things 
to  small,  there  is  a  fine  scene  in  a  novel 
which  I  once  read.  A  young  man  is  afraid 
to  go  to  the  rescue  of  some  people  in  a  flood, 

76 


VER.  3]  ROMANS 

because  he  has  a  conviction  that  if  he  is 
drowned  there,  he  will  go  to  hell.  And  the 
old  man,  an  old  Scotchman,  to  whom  he 
tells  this,  shouts  out  to  him  in  reply,  "  Better 
be  damned  doing  the  will  of  God  than  saved 
doing  nothing."  This  is  the  instinct  of  true 
religion  revolting  against  the  false  doctrine 
of  rewards ;  and  I  believe  that  this  revolt 
has  the  sympathy  of  all  true  Christians.' — 
PROF.  B.  bosanquet's  Essays  and  Addresses^ 
p.  III. 


A  T  the  close  of  the  eighth  chapter  of  his 
^  Life  of  General  Gordon^  Sir  William 
Butler  sums  up  his  hero's  feelings  during  the 
last  siege  of  Khartoum.  'That  this  heroic 
soul  had  now  come  to  look  upon  his  life  as 
a  sacrifice  to  be  given  in  atonement  for  the 
sins  of  his  fellow-countrymen  in  Egypt  is 
beyond  dispute.  "  I  feel  that  all  these  wrongs 
can  only  be  washed  out  in  blood,"  he  wrote 
from  Jerusalem  in  the  end  of  1883.  A  few 
months  later,  writing  on  March  4th  from 
Khartoum,  he  uses  these  words — than  which 
77 


ROMANS  [chap.  ix. 

there  are  none  more  memorable  in  all  his 
life :  "  May  our  Lord  not  visit  us  as  a  nation 
for  our  sins,  but  may  His  wrath  fall  on  me, 
hid  in  Christ.  This  is  my  frequent  prayer, 
and  may  He  spare  these  people,  and  bring 
them  to  peace."' 


TN  Cromwell's  first  speech  to  the  Little 
-*-  Parliament  of  1653  he  uses  the  same 
passage  in  order  to  inculcate  a  gracious, 
unselfish  bearing  towards  the  various  classes 
of  people  in  the  nation.  '  I  confess  I  have 
sometimes  said,  foolishly  it  may  be :  I  had 
rather  miscarry  to  a  believer  than  an  un- 
believer. This  may  seem  a  paradox : — but 
let 's  take  heed  of  doing  that  which  is  evil  to 
either!  Oh,  if  God  fill  your  hearts  with 
such  a  spirit  as  Moses  had,  and  as  Paul  had, 
— which  was  not  a  spirit  for  believers  only, 
but  for  the  whole  people !  Moses,  he  could 
die  for  them ;  wish  himself  blotted  out  of 
God*s  Book :  Paul  could  wish  himself 
accursed  for  his  countrymen  after  the  flesh. 
So  full  of  affection  were  their  spirits  unto  all.* 

78 


VER.  15]  ROMANS 

IX.  13.  Jacob  have  I  loved,  but  Esau 
have  I  hated. 

*  nPHAT  meeting  between  the  brothers,' 
-*-  says  Dinah  Morris  in  Adam  Bede^ 
*  where  Esau  is  so  loving  and  generous,  and 
Jacob  so  timid  and  distrustful,  notwith- 
standing his  sense  of  the  divine  favour,  has 
always  touched  me  greatly.  Truly,  I  have 
been  tempted  sometimes  to  say  that  Jacob 
was  of  a  mean  spirit.  But  that  is  our  trial — 
we  must  learn  to  see  the  good  in  the  midst 
of  much  that  is  unlovely.' 


IX.  15.  I  will  have  mercy  on  whom  I 
will  have  mercy. 

James  Guthrie,  minister  of  Stirling,  who 
was  hung  at  the  Cross  of  Edinburgh  in 
1661,  had  this  epistle  read  to  him  before 
his  death  by  his  man-servant,  and  when  the 
reader  came  to  this  verse,  he  cried  out  in 
tears :  '  James,  James,  halt  there,  for  I  have 
nothing  but  that  to  lippen  to ! ' 
79 


ROMANS  [chap.  ix. 

TX.  1 6.  Itisof  God  that  showeth  mercy. 
See  this  verse  discussed  in  Bunyan's  Grace 
Abounding^  sees.  58-60. 

IX.  18-21.  WhomHe  willHehardeneth, 
etc. 

A /Tr.  Cotter  Morison,  in  his  Service  of 
^^^  Man,  ii.,  declares  that  these  verses 
'  probably  have  added  more  to  human  misery 
than  any  other  utterances  made  by  man.' 

*  T  T  is  the  will  of  God,  and  we  are  clay 

-^     In  the  potter's  hands ;  and,  at  the  worst, 

are  made 
From  absolute  nothing,  vessels  of  disgrace, 
Till  His  most  righteous  purpose  wrought  in  us. 
Our  purified  spirits  find  their  perfect  rest.' 

CHARLES  LAMB. 

IX.  20.  Shall  the  thing  formed  say  to 
him  that  formed  it,  Why  didst  thou 
make  me  thus  ? 

*  nrURN,  turn,  my  wheel !    This  earthen  jar 

■^    A  touch  can  make,  a  touch  can  mar ; 
And  shall  it  to  the  potter  say, 
80 


VER.  20]  ROMANS 

What  makest  thou  ?     Thou  hast  no  hand  ? 
As  men  who  think  to  understand 
A  world  by  their  Creator  planned, 
Who  wiser  is  than  they. 

Turn,  turn,  my  wheel !     What  is  begun 
At  daybreak  must  at  dark  be  done, 

To-morrow  will  be  another  day ; 
To-morrow  the  hot  furnace  flame 
Will  search  the  heart  and  try  the  frame, 
And  stamp  with  honour  or  with  shame 

These  vessels  made  of  clay.' 

LONGFELLOW. 


X.  6/  Say  not,  Who  shall  ascend  into 
heaven?  etc. 

*  TT  were  a  vain  endeavour 
■*-     Though  I  should  gaze  for  ever 
On  that  green  light  that  lingers  in  the  west : 
I  may  not  hope  from  outward  forms  to  win 
The  passion  and  the  life  whose  fountains  are 
within.' 

COLERIDGE. 
F  81 


ROMANS  [chap.  x. 

X.  9.  If  thou   shalt   confess   with  thy 
mouth  Jesus  as  Lord. 

See    Augustine's    Confessions^   book  viii. 
ii.,  and  Clough's  fine  poem,  A  Protest 

X.  10.  With  the  heart  man  believeth 
unto  righteousness. 

'HPO  a  world  distracted  by  hostile  creeds 
^  and  colliding  philosophies,  it  [Christ- 
ianity] taught  its  doctrines,  not  as  a  human 
speculation  but  as  a  divine  revelation, 
authenticated  much  less  by  reason  than  by 
faith.  "  With  the  heart  man  believeth  unto 
righteousness";  "He  that  doeth  the  will  of 
My  Father  will  know  the  doctrine,  whether 
it  be  of  God";  "  Unless  you  believe  you  can- 
not understand";  "A  heart  naturally  Chris- 
tian"; "The  heart  makes  the  theologian," 
are  the  phrases  which  best  express  the  first 
action  of  Christianity  upon  the  world.  Like 
all  great  religions,  it  was  more  concerned 
with  modes  of  feeling  than  with  modes  of 
thought.' 

LECKY,  History  of  European  Morals^  ill. 
82 


VER.  15]  ROMANS 

X.  15.  How  shall  they  preach,  except 
they  be  sent  ? 

*  TTHE  time  had  now  arrived  when  it  was 
-*-  necessary  for  Addison  to  choose  a 
calling.  Everything  seemed  to  point  his 
course  towards  the  clerical  profession.  His 
habits  were  regular,  his  opinions  orthodox. 
His  college  had  large  ecclesiastical  prefer- 
ment in  its  gift  and  boasts  that  it  has  given 
at  least  one  bishop  to  almost  every  see  in 
England.  Dr.  Lancelot  Addison  held  an 
honourable  position  in  the  Church,  and  had 
set  his  heart  on  seeing  his  son  a  clergyman.' 

MACAULAY. 


/^OMPARE  Earle's  description  in  his 
^-^  Microcosmography,  of  the  career  of  a 
younger  brother,  '  If  his  annuity  stretch  so 
far,  he  is  sent  to  the  university,  and  with 
great  heartburning  takes  upon  him  the 
ministry,  as  a  profession  he  is  condemned 
to  by  his  ill  fortune.' 

83 


ROMANS  [chap.  x. 

How  beautiful  are  the  feet  of  them 
that  bring  glad  tidings  of  good. 

See  the  passage  in  De  Quincey's  essay  on 
The  Glory  of  Motion^  upon  bringing  news  of 
peace  and  victory. 

X.  1 6.  But  they  did  not  all  hearken  to 
the  glad  tidings.  For  Isaiah  saith, 
Lord,  who  hath  believed  our  report  ? 

*  T^HE  Roman  senators  conspired  against 
-^  Julius  Caesar,  to  kill  him.  That  very 
next  morning,  Artemidorus,  Caesar's  friend, 
delivered  him  a  paper,  desiring  him  to  per- 
use it,  wherein  the  whole  plot  was  discovered ; 
but  Caesar  complimented  his  life  away, 
being  so  taken  up  to  return  the  salutations 
of  such  people  as  met  him  in  the  way,  that 
he  pocketed  the  paper,  among  other  petitions, 
as  unconcerned  therein;  and  so,  going  to 
the  senate-house,  was  slain.  The  world, 
flesh,  and  devil  have  a  design  for  the  de- 
struction of  men;  we  ministers  bring  our 
84 


VER.  1 6]  ROMANS 

people  a  letter,  God's  word,  wherein  all  the 
conspiracy  is  revealed.  "But  who  hath 
believed  our  report  ? "  Most  men  are  so 
busy  about  worldly  delights,  they  are  not  at 
leisure  to  listen  to  us  or  read  the  letter ;  but 
there,  alas,  run  headlong  to  their  own  ruin 
and  destruction.' 

FULLER. 


XI-  33-  O  the  depth  of  the  riches 
both  of  the  wisdom  and  knowledge 
of  God ! 

*"\1  rHEN  all  is  said  and   done   the  rapt 
*  *       saint   is    found    the    only   logician. 
Not  exhortation,  not  argument,  becomes  our 
life,  but  paeans  of  joy  and  praise.' 

EMERSON. 

*  T  FOUND  it,'  says  Adam  Bede  in  George 
■^  Eliot's  romance,  '  better  for  my  soul  to 
be  humble  before  the  mysteries  of  God's 
dealings,  and  not  be  making  a  clatter  about 
what  I  could  never  understand.' 

85 


ROMANS  [chap.  xi. 

*  /^NE  truth  discovered,  one  pang  of  regret 
^-^  at  not  being  able  to  express  it,  is 
better  than  all  the  fluency  and  flippancy  in 
the  world.' 

HAZLITT. 

*  IVr  OWHERE  so  much  as  in  the  writings 
-'■  of  St.  Paul,  and  in  that  great  apostle's 
greatest  work,  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans, 
has  Puritanism  found  what  seemed  to  furnish 
it  with  the  one  thing  needful,  and  to  give  it 
canons  of  truths  absolute  and  final.  Now 
all  writings,  as  has  been  already  said,  even 
the  most  precious  writings  and  the  most 
fruitful,  must  inevitably,  from  the  very 
nature  of  things,  be  but  contributions  to 
human  thought  and  human  development, 
which  extend  wider  than  they  do.  Indeed 
St.  Paul,  in  the  very  epistle  of  which  we  are 
speaking,  shows,  when  he  asks.  Who  hath 
known  the  mifid  of  the  Lord?  who  hath 
known,  that  is,  the  love  and  divine  order 
of  things  in  its  entirety — that  he  himself 
acknowledges  this  fully.' 

M.  ARNOLD,  Culture  and  Anarchy. 
86 


VER.  36]  ROMANS 

How  unsearchable  are  His  judg- 
ments, and  His  ways  past  finding  out ! 

*  A 1  rE  see  His  working  and  we  sorrow :  the 
*  *  end  of  His  counsel  and  working  both 
hidden,  and  underneath  the  ground,  and 
therefore  we  cannot  believe.  Even  amongst 
men,  we  see  hewn  stones,  timber,  and  a 
hundred  scattered  parcels  and  pieces  of  our 
house,  all  under-tools,  hammers,  and  axes, 
and  saws;  yet  the  house,  the  beauty  and  the  use 
of  so  many  lodgings  and  ease-rooms,  we 
neither  see  nor  understand  for  the  present ; 
these  are  but  in  the  mind  and  heart  of  the 
builder  as  yet.  We  see  red  earth,  un- 
broken clods,  furrows,  and  stones;  but  we 
see  not  summer,  lilies,  roses,  the  beauty  of 
a  garden.' 

SAMUEL  RUTHERFORD. 

XI.  36.  For  of  Him  and  through  Him 
and  to  Him  are  all  things,  to  whom 
be  glory  for  ever. 

The  motto  of  Whittier's  poem  The  Over- 
Heart 

87 


ROMANS  [chap.  xii. 

XII.  I.   By  the  mercies  of  God. 

/CROMWELL,  in  his  first  speech  to  the 
^^  Little  Parliament  of  1653,  speaks  as 
follows  :  '  And  truly  the  apostle  in  the  twelfth 
of  the  Romans,  when  he  has  summed  up  all 
the  mercies  of  God,  and  the  goodness  of 
God ;  and  discovered,  in  the  former  chapters, 
of  the  foundation  of  the  gospel — he  be- 
seecheth  them  to  "present  their  bodies  a 
living  sacrifice."  .  .  .  The  Spirit  is  given  for 
that  use.' 

Your  reasonable  service. 

'  T3  ELIGION  is  a  submission,  not  an 
-'-^  aspiration;  an  obedience,  not  an 
ambition  of  the  soul.' 

RUSKIN. 

*  /^  GOD,  no  proper  place  I  see, 
^-^     No  work  that  I  can  do ; 
Myself  I  offer  unto  Thee, 
A  sacrifice  anew. 

If  Thou  with  clear  sign  from  on  high 
Wilt  mark  me  as  Thine  own, 
88 


VER.  2]  ROMANS 

How  soon,  how  gladly  would  I  die, 
Unhonoured  and  unknown. 

F.  W.  H.  MYERS. 

*  T3  ELIGION  is  neither  a  theology  nor  a 
^^  theosophy ;  it  is  more  than  that ;  it  is 
a  discipline,  a  law,  a  yoke,  an  indissoluble 
engagement.' 

JOUBERT. 

XII.  2.  Be  ye  transformed  .  .  .  that  ye 
may  prove  what  is  that  good  and 
acceptable  and  perfect  will  of  God. 

'HEN  Horace  Bushnell  was  on  his 
death-bed,  his  wife  repeated  to  him 
this  text :  '  The  good  and  perfect  and 
acceptable  will  of  God.'  '  Yes,'  the  dying 
man  repHed ;  *  acceptable  and  accepted.' 

By  the  renewing  of  your  mind. 

*  X7OR  what  is  true  repentance  but  in 
^    thought— 

Not  even  in  inmost  thought — to  think  again 
The  sins  that  made  the  past  so  pleasant  to  us.' 

TENNYSON. 

89 


w 


ROMANS  [chap.  xii. 

XII.  3.  I  say  to  every  man,  not  to 
think  more  highly  of  himself  than  he 
ought  to  think,  but  to  think  soberly. 

"DUSHNELL  writes  of  his  experiences 
-^  in  London,  that  his  visit  'was  just 
the  thing  I  wanted.  It  does  not  crush 
me  or  anything  like  that,  but  it  shows  me 
what  a  speck  I  am.  Anything  that  makes 
us  know  the  world  better,  and  our  relations 
to  it,  the  ways  of  reaching  mankind,  what 
popularity  is  worth,  how  large  the  world  is, 
and  how  many  things  it  takes  to  fill  it  with 
an  influence — anything  which  sets  a  man 
practically  in  his  place  is  a  mental  good.' 

XII.  5.  We  are  severally  members  one 
of  another. 

C  PEAKING  of  the  unparalleled  hopeful- 
^^  ness  of  humanity's  prospects  in  Greece, 
during  the  years  470-445  B.C.,  when  'the 
tree  of  human  life  had  burst  suddenly  into 
flower,  into  that  exquisite  and  short-lived 
bloom  which  seems  so  disturbing  among  the 
90 


VER.  8]  ROMANS 

ordinary  processes  of  historical  growth,' 
Professor  G.  G.  Murray  attributes  this, 
among  other  things,  to  'a  circumstance  that 
has  rarely  been  repeated  in  history— the  fact 
that  all  the  different  advances  appeared  to 
help  one  another.  The  ideals  of  freedom, 
law,  and  progress;  of  truth  and  beauty;  of 
knowledge  and  virtue;  of  humanity  and 
religion;  high  things,  the  conflicts  between 
which  have  caused  most  of  the  disruptions 
and  despondencies  of  human  societies, 
seemed  for  a  generation  or  two  at  this  time 
to  lie  all  in  one  direction.  In  the  main,  all 
good  things  went  hand  in  hand.  The  poets 
and  the  men  of  science,  the  moral  teachers 
and  the  hardy  speculators,  the  great  traders 
and  the  political  reformers— all  found  their 
centre  of  life  and  aspiration  in  the  same 
"School  of  Hellas,"  Athens.' 

XII.  8.   He  that  ruleth,  with  diligence. 


'I 


DELIBERATELY  affirm,'  writes  Huxley 
in  his  autobiography,  'that  the  society 
fell  into  at  school  was  the  worst  I  have 
91 


ROMANS  [chap.  xii. 

ever  known.  We  boys  were  average  lads, 
with  much  the  same  inherent  capacity  for 
good  and  evil  as  any  others ;  but  the  people 
who  were  set  over  us  cared  about  as  much 
for  our  intellectual  and  moral  welfare  as  if 
they  were  baby-farmers.  We  were  left  to 
the  operation  of  the  struggle  for  existence 
among  ourselves,  and  bullying  was  the  least 
of  the  ill  practices  current  among  us.' 


XII.  9.  Let  love  be  without  dissimula- 
tion. 

'  T 1  rHEN  we  do  speak  or  converse  together, 
*  '^  it  is  with  the  utmost  civility — even 
apparent  cordiality  on  her  part;  but  pre- 
serve me  from  such  cordiality !  It  is  like 
handhng  brier-roses  and  may- blossom — 
bright  enough  to  the  eye,  and  outwardly 
soft  to  the  touch,  but  you  know  there  are 
thorns  beneath,  and  every  now  and  then  you 
feel  them  too.' — anne  bronte,  The  Tenant 
of  Wildfell  Hall^  xxxi. 


92 


VER.  ii]  ROMANS 

XII.  lo.   In     honour     preferring     one 
another. 

*  TF  I  had  my  life  to  live  over  again,'  said 
-'-  Horace  Bushnell,  in  his  old  age,  '  there 
is  one  thing  I  would  not  do — I  would  not 
push.' 

Be  tenderly  affectioned  one  to  another 

*  T  OFTEN  wonder,'  says  Caroline  Hel- 
•^  stone  in  Shirley,  '  whether  most  men  re- 
semble my  uncle  in  their  domestic  relations  ; 
whether  it  is  necessary  to  be  new  and  un- 
familiar to  them,  in  order  to  seem  agreeable 
or  estimable  in  their  eyes  ;  and  whether  it  is 
impossible  to  their  natures  to  retain  a  con- 
stant interest  and  affection  for  those  they 
see  every  day.' 

XII.  II.   Diligent  in  business. 

*  T7  ACH  of  us  has  a  little  cleverness  and  a 
■'--'  great  deal  of  sluggish  stupidity.  .  .  . 
Modern  education  is  a  beginning  of  many 
things,  and  it  is  little  more  than  a  beginning.' 

p.    G.    HAMERTON. 

93 


ROMANS  [chap.  xii. 

*  T^HE  parts  of  our  wealth  most  intimately 
-^      ours  are  those  which  are  saturated  with 
our  labour.' 

PROFESSOR   WILLIAM   JAMES. 


Fervent  in  spirit. 

'  IVT  ^^  ^^  ^^^^  world  is  like  a  traveller  who 
is  always  walking  towards  a  colder 
region,  and  who  is  therefore  obliged  to  be 
more  active  as  he  goes  further  north.  The 
great  malady  of  the  soul  is  cold,  and  in 
order  to  counteract  this  formidable  illness, 
he  must  keep  up  the  activity  of  his  mind 
not  only  by  work,  but  by  contact  with  his 
fellow-men  and  with  the  world.' 

DE  TOCQUEVILLE. 


*  T  N  every  action  of  religion  God  expects 
■*-  such  a  warmth  and  a  holy  fire  to  go 
along,  that  it  may  be  able  to  enkindle  the 
wood  upon  the  altar,  and  consume  the 
sacrifice ;  but  God  hates  an  indifferent  spirit. 
Earnestness  and  vivacity,  quickness  and 
94 


VER.  ii]  ROMANS 

delight,  perfect  choice  of  the  service  and  a 
delight  in  the  prosecution,  is  all  that  the 
spirit  of  a  man  can  yield  towards  his 
religion.' 

JEREMY  TAYLOR. 


"Pdward  Fitzgerald  and  Tennyson  were 
•■-^  one  day  looking  at  two  busts  of  Dante 
and  of  Goethe.  '  What  is  there  wanting  in 
Goethe,'  said  Fitzgerald,  *  which  the  other 
has  ? '  Tennyson  at  once  replied  :  'The  divine 
intensity.' 


*  T3  ELIGION  (and  indeed  everything  else) 
■*-^  was  no  matter  of  indifference  to  him. 
It  was  Oepixov  Tt  TTpayfj-a,  a  certain  fiery  thing, 
as  Aristotle  calls  love;  it  required  and  it 
got  the  very  flower  and  vigour  of  the  spirit 
— the  strength  and  sinews  of  the  soul — the 
prime  and  top  of  the  affections — this  is  that 
grace,  that  panting  grace — a  flaming  edge  of 
the  affection — the  ruddy  complexion  of  the 
soul.' 

CULVER  WELL. 

95 


ROMANS  [chap.  xii. 

XII.  12.  Patient  in  tribulation. 

*  'T^HE  first  thing  that  strikes  me  on  hearing 

•*^      a  misfortune  having  befallen  another 

is  this :  Well,  it  cannot  be  helped.     He  will 

have  the  pleasure  of  trying  the  resources  of 

his  spirit' 

KEATS. 


*  "\  1  rHY  art  thou  troubled,  when  things 
*  ^  succeed  not  as  thou  wouldest  or 
desirest  ?  Who  is  he  that  hath  all  things  to 
his  mind  ?  Neither  I  nor  thou,  nor  any  man 
on  earth.  There  is  none  in  the  world  with- 
out some  tribulation  or  perplexity,  though 
he  were  Emperor  or  Pope.  Who  has  the 
better  lot  ?  Surely  he  who  is  able  to  suffer 
something  for  God.' 

THOMAS   A    KEMPIS. 


XII.  14.  Bless  them  which  persecute 
you  ;  bless  and  curse  not. 

See  Whittier's  lines  on  Barclay  of  Ury. 

96 


VER.  15]  ROMANS 

Bless  and  curse  not. 

'  CPINOZA,'  says  Mr.  Hale  White,  'advises 
^^  that  every  man  should  have  certain 
sure  maxims — dogmata  he  calls  them — which 
should  even  be  committed  to  memory,  so 
that  they  may  be  ready  whenever  we  need 
them :  one  of  these  dogmata  is  never  to 
oppose  hatred  by  hatred.' 

XII.   15.    Rejoice  with  them  that  re- 
joice, weep  with  them  that  weep. 

The  text  of  Butler's  two  sermons  on  Com- 
passion. 

*  'T^HEY  who,  deluded  by  no  generous 
-*■  error,  instigated  by  no  sacred  thirst  of 
doubtful  knowledge,  duped  by  no  illustrious 
superstition,  loving  nothing  on  this  earth, 
and  cherishing  no  hopes  beyond,  yet  keep 
aloof  from  sympathies  with  their  kind, 
rejoicing  neither  in  human  joy  nor  mourning 
with  human  grief;  these,  and  such  as  they, 
have  their  appointed  curse.    They  languish, 

G  97 


ROMANS  [chap.  xii. 

because  none  feel  with  them  their  common 
nature.  They  are  morally  dead.  .  .  .  Those 
who  love  not  their  fellow-beings  live  un- 
fruitful lives,  and  prepare  for  their  old  age  a 
miserable  grave.' 

SHELLEY,  Preface  to  Alastor, 


T  N  the  course  of  a  letter  written  to  a  friend 
■*■  upon  the  choice  of  a  profession,  parti- 
cularly that  of  a  schoolmaster,  Dr.  Arnold 
of  Rugby  remarks  :  '  Another  point  to  which 
I  attach  great  importance  is  liveliness.  This 
seems  to  me  an  essential  condition  of 
sympathy  with  creatures  so  lively  as  boys 
are  naturally,  and  it  is  a  great  matter  to  make 
them  understand  that  liveliness  is  not  folly  or 
thoughtlessness.  Now  I  think  the  prevailing 
manner  amongst  many  very  valuable  men  at 
Oxford  is  the  very  opposite  to  liveliness ;  I 
think  that  this  is  the  case  partly  with  yourself; 
not  at  all  from  affectation,  but  from  natural 
temper,  encouraged  perhaps,  rather  than 
checked,  by  a  belief  that  is  right  and 
becoming.     But  this  appears  to  me  to  be  in 

98 


VER.  15]  ROMANS 

point  of  manner  the  great  difference  between 
a  clergyman  with  a  parish  and  a  school- 
master. It  is  an  illustration  of  St.  Paul's 
rule  :  Rejoice  with  them  that  rejoice^  and  weep 
with  them  that  weep.  A  clergyman's  inter- 
course is  very  much  with  the  sick  and  the 
poor,  where  liveliness  would  be  greatly  mis- 
placed; but  a  schoolmaster's  is  with  the 
young,  the  strong,  and  the  happy,  and  he 
cannot  get  on  with  them  unless  in  animal 
spirits  he  can  sympathise  with  them,  and 
show  them  that  his  thoughtfulness  is  not 
connected  with  selfishness  and  weakness. 
At  least  this  applies,  I  think,  to  a  young 
man.' 


O  PEAKING  of  Japanese  morality  and 
^^  manners.  Professor  Inazo  Nitobe  says: 
*  I  cannot  emphasise  too  strongly  that 
manners  and  etiquette  are  valuable  only  as 
manifestations  of  a  genuine  culture  of  the 
soul,  which  pleases  itself  in  imparting  plea- 
sure to  others,  and  in  avoiding  giving  pain. 
Politeness  must  conform  to  the  precept  to 
99 


ROMANS  [chap.  xii. 

rejoice  with  those  who  rejoice,  and  weep  with 
those  7uho  weep,  or  rather  to  rejoice  with 
those  who  rejoice  and  not  let  others  weep 
when  you  weep.' 

Japan  by  the  Japanese,  pp.  274-5. 

*  117 OR  one  shall  grasp  and  one  resign, 
-■-        One  drink  life's  rue  and  one  its  wine, 
And  God  shall  make  the  balance  good.' 

WHITTIER. 


XII.  16.  Condescend  to  things  that  are 
lowly  {A.  V.  to  men  of  low  estate). 

*  TN  train  on  way  to  Westminster.  To  so 
■*"  many  people  nothing  is  "worth  while" 
— not  worth  while  telling,  not  worth  while 
writing,  and  yet  the  incidents  of  life  are 
pretty  similar  to  all — the  same  sort  of  people 
to  see  and  meet,  the  same  troubles  and  cares 
and  fears.  To  most  men  life  seems  one  dull 
round,  out  of  which  little  can  be  extracted. 
and  why  ?  Chiefly  because  they  have  a  low 
opinion  of  small  things.  They  don't  see  the 
100 


VER.  1 6]  ROMANS 

dignity  of  the  little.  A  neighbour  is  nothing. 
A  man  must  be  Sir  Garnet  Wolseley  or 
Captain  Nares  or  Charles  Dickens  to  make 
them  care  to  see  him.  Not  so  did  Dickens 
find  Sloppy  and  Kit  and  Smike  and  little 
Nell.' 

JAMES  smetham's  Letters^  p.  379. 

Seek  not  high  things,  but  condescend. 

*  /^H  !  when  most  self-exalted,  most  alone! 
^-^     Chief  dreamer,  own  thy  dream  ! 
Thy  brother-world  stirs  at  thy  feet  unknown ; 
Who  hath  a  monarch's  hath  no  brother's  part.' 

M.  ARNOLD. 


*  TF  we  will  exercise  the  needful  restraint, 
-*-  if  we  will  curb  our  conceit,  and  watch 
our  tongues,  and  keep  aloof  from  temptations 
to  controversy,  we  may  still  have  some  ex- 
perience of  that  fellowship  with  the  saints 
which  is  necessary  for  our  daily  sustenance 
in  the  life  of  faith.' 

T.  H.  GREEN. 
lOI 


ROMANS  [chap.  xii. 

Be  not  wise  in  your  own  conceits. 

*  T  N  the  evening  and  next  morning  I  preached 
at  Cardiff.  Oh  what  a  fair  prospect  was 
here  some  years  ago !  Surely  this  whole 
town  would  have  known  God,  from  the  least 
even  to  the  greatest,  had  it  not  been  for  men 
leaning  to  their  own  understanding,  instead 
of  the  law  and  the  testimony.' 

v^ESLEY^  s  yournal,  1749. 

'T^HE  next  entry  is :  'At  twelve  I  preached 
-^      at  Lanmais  to  a  loving,  earnest  people, 
who   do  not  desire  to  be   any  wiser    than 
God.' 

Fifteen  years  later,  during  his  visit  to 
Scotland,  he  notes  :  *  There  is  seldom  fear 
of  wanting  a  congregation  in  Scotland.  But 
the  misfortune  is,  they  know  everything ;  so 
they  learn  nothing.' 

TN  1869,  during  a  debate  on  the  Irish  land 
■^  laws,  Mr.  Gladstone  observed  sarcasti- 
cally :  *  I  have  this  advantage  for  learning 
the  Irish  land  question,  that  I  do  not  set  out 
with  the  belief  that  I  know  it  already.' 


M 


VER.  19]  ROMANS 

ANNING  thus  describes  some  members 
of  the  Vatican  Council :  '  The  main 
characteristic  of  these  men  was  vanity  — 
intellectual  and  Hterary.  They  had  the  in- 
flation of  German  professors,  and  the  ruthless 
talk  of  undergraduates.' 

XII.  17.  Recompense  to  no  man  evil 
for  evil. 

*  nPHE  dull  world  has  got  the  wrong  phrase ; 
-^       it  is  he  who  resents  an  affront  who 
pockets  it;  he  who  takes  no  notice  lets  it 
lie  in  the  dirt.' 

GEORGE  MACDONALD. 

XII.  19.  Avenge    not   yourselves,    be- 
loved. 

«  T_J  AS  thy  heart's  friend  carelessly  or 
^-^  cruelly  stabbed  into  thy  heart  ?  Oh, 
forgive  him !  Think  how,  when  thou  art 
dead,  he  will  punish  himself.' 

CARLYLE. 
103 


ROMANS  [chap.  xii. 

*  TI)  ROUGH  AM,'  writes  Macaulay  to  Ellis 
^  in  1838,  is  persecuting  Napier,  'with 
the  utmost  malignity.  I  did  not  think  it 
possible  for  human  nature,  in  an  educated, 
civilised  man — a  man,  too,  of  great  intellect 
— to  have  become  so  depraved.  He  writes 
to  Napier  in  language  of  the  most  savage 
hatred,  and  of  the  most  extravagant  vaunt- 
ing. The  ministers,  he  says,  have  felt  only 
his  little  finger.  He  will  now  put  forth  his 
red  right  hand.  They  shall  have  no  rest. 
.  .  .  He  will  make  revenge  on  Empson  the 
one  business  of  the  remaining  years  of  his 
life.  Empson  says  nothing  so  demoniacal 
was  ever  written  in  the  world.' 

*  P  VERY  religion  that  preaches  vengeance 
"■— '  for  sin  is  the  religion  of  the  enemy 
and  the  avenger,  and  not  of  the  forgiver  of 
sin ;  and  their  god  is  Satan  named  by  the 
divine  name.'  blake. 

*  T^HIS   Balin  graspt,  but  while  in  act   to 

-■-      hurl, 
Thro'  memory  of  that  token  on  the  shield 
104 


VER.  2i]  ROMANS 

Relaxed  his  hold  :    "I  will  be  gentle,"  he 

thought, 
"  And  passing  gentle  "  caught  his  hand  away.' 
TENNYSON,  Idylls  of  the  King, 
'  Balin  and  Balan.' 


OMAELDUNE,  let  be  this  purpose  of 
thine ! 
Remember  the  words  of  the  Lord,  when  he 

told  us  "  Vengeance  is  mine  !  " 
His  fathers  have  slain  thy  fathers  in  war  or 

in  single  strife. 
Thy  fathers  have  slain  his  fathers,  each  taken 

a  life  for  a  life. 
Thy  father  had  slain  his  father,  how  long 
shall  the  murder  last  ? ' 

TENNYSON,  Voyage  of  Maeldune. 


XII.  21.  Overcome  evil  with  good. 

O  amuel  Rutherford,  in  a  letter  to  Marion 
^--^  M 'Naught,  writes  thus:  'Put  on  love, 
and  brotherly  kindness,  and  long-suffering ; 
wait  as  long  upon  the  favour  of  and 
105 


ROMANS  [chap.  xiii. 

turned  hearts  of  your  enemies  as  your 
Christ  waited  upon  you,  and  as  dear  Jesus 
stood  at  your  soul's  door,  with  dewy  and 
rainy  locks,  the  long,  cold  night.  Be  angry 
but  sin  not.  I  persuade  myself  that  holy 
unction  within  you,  which  teacheth  you  all 
things,  is  also  saying,  Overcome  evil  with  good. 
If  that  had  not  spoken  in  your  soul,  at  the 
tears  of  your  aged  pastor,  you  would  not 
have  agreed,  and  forgiven  his  foolish  son 
who  wronged  you/ 


XIII.  I.  Let  every  soul  be  subject  to 
the  higher  powers. 

'  IWTESEEMETH  (if  I  may  speake  boldly) 
^  ^  that  it  argueth  a  great  self-love  and 
presumption  for  a  man  to  esteeme  his 
opinions  so  far,  that  for  to  establish  them 
a  man  must  be  faine  to  subvert  a  publike 
peace,  and  introduce  so  many  inevitable 
mischiefes,  and  so  horrible  a  corruption  of 
manners  as  civill  warres  and  alterations  of  a 
state  bring  with  them,  in  matters  of  such 
1 06 


VER.  i]  ROMANS 

consequence,  and  to  bring  them  into  his 
own  countrie.  .  .  .  Christian  religion  hath 
all  the  markes  of  extreme  justice  and  profit, 
but  none  more  apparent  than  the  exact  com- 
mendation of  obedience  due  unto  magistrate, 
and  manutention  of  policies :  what  wonder- 
full  example  hath  divine  wisdom  left  us, 
which,  to  establish  the  wel-fare  of  humane 
kinde,  and  to  conduct  this  glorious  victorie 
of  hers  against  death  and  sinne,  would  not 
do  it  but  at  the  mercy  of  our  politik  order, 
and  hath  submitted  the  progresse  of  it,  and 
the  conduct  of  so  high  and  worthie  effect, 
to  the  blindenesse  and  injustice  of  our  obser- 
vations and  customes  ? ' 

MONTAIGNE  (Florio). 


The  powers  that  be   are    ordained   of 
God. 

*  \/ES,  mark  the  word,  deem  not  that  saints 
^       alone 

Are  Heaven's  true   servants,  and  His   laws 
fulfil 

107 


ROMANS  [chap.  xiii. 

Who  rules  o'er  just  and  wicked.  He  from  ill 
Culls  good ;  He  moulds  the  Egyptian's  heart 

of  stone 
To  do  Him  honour,  and  e'en  Nero's  throne 
Claims  as  His  ordinance ;  before  Him  still 
Pride  bows  unconscious,  and  the  rebel  will 
Most  does  His  bidding,  following  most  its 

own.' 

HURRELL  FROUDE. 

XIII.  4.  He  beareth  not  the  sword  in 

vain. 

TDAUL'S  'craving  for  some  closer  bond 
-*-  with  the  Gentile  world,  for  some  affinity 
with  the  keen  philosophical  intellect  of  the 
Greeks,  and  the  stately  jurisprudence  of 
Rome,  is  shown  in  a  hundred  passages,' 
especially  in  Acts  xvii.  '  and  not  less  certainly 
in  that  earnest  respect  for  Roman  legislation, 
which  made  him  inculcate  on  the  Roman 
Church  the  divine  sanction  of  all  secular 
government,  and  speak  to  them  of  rulers  as 
ministers  of  God,  not  bearing  the  sword  in 

Vain.^  R.  H.  HUTTON. 

108 


VER.  8]  ROMANS 

XIII.  7.  Render  to  all  their  dues  .  .  . 
honour  to  whom  honour  is  due. 

TN  Boswell's  Johnson  it  is  told  how  the 
■*-  Doctor,  when  in  Wiltshire,  'attended 
some  experiments  that  were  made  by  a 
physician  at  Salisbury,  on  the  new  kinds  of 
air.  In  the  course  of  the  experiments,  fre- 
quent mention  being  made  of  Dr.  Priestley, 
Dr.  Johnson  knit  his  brows,  and  in  a  stern 
manner  inquired,  "  Why  do  we  hear  so  much 
of  Dr.  Priestley?"  He  was  very  properly 
answered,  "Sir,  because  we  are  indebted  to 
him  for  these  important  discoveries."  On 
this  Dr.  Johnson  appeared  well  content ;  and 
replied,  "Well,  well,  I  believe  we  are;  and 
let  every  man  have  the  honour  he  has 
merited."' 


XIII.  8.  Owe  no  man  anything. 

*  IIJIS  economical  maxims,'  says  Sir  George 

^  ^      Trevelyan  of  Lord  Macaulay,  '  were 
of  the  simplest :  to  treat  official  and  literary 
109 


ROMANS  [chap.  xiii. 

gains  as  capital,  and  to  pay  all  bills  within 
the  twenty-four  hours.  "  I  think,"  he  says, 
"that  prompt  payment  is  a  moral  duty; 
knowing  as  I  do,  how  painful  it  is  to  have 
such  things  deferred." ' 

*  O  UCH  is  the  charity  of  the  Jesuits,'  said 
^^  Thomas  Fuller,  'that  they  never  owe 
any  man  any  ill-will — making  frequent  pay- 
ment thereof.' 

*  TTOW  little  v/e  pay  our  way  in  life! 
^  -'■  Although  we  have  our  purses  con- 
tinually in  our  hand,  the  better  part  of 
service  goes  still  unrewarded.' 

R.  L.  STEVENSON,  An  Inland  Voyage. 

'"  T^UTY"and  "debt"  are  the  same  word 
-*-^  differently  written,  and  both  mean 
that  which  is  "owed."  I  "ought"  is  the 
preterite  of  "  I  owe."  The  French  devoir  is 
applied  to  pecuniary  debt  and  moral  duty. 
In  Greek  o^eiAw  and  ocj^eLkrjfxa  show  the 
same  association  of  ideas.  Now  what  do  we 
mean  by  a  sense  of  duty,  except  a  recogni- 

IIO 


VER.  8]  ROMANS 

tion  of  the  claims  of  others,  of  neighbours, 
family,  society,  or  God?  In  no  respect  do 
men  differ  more  than  in  this  sense  of  duty. 

J.  COTTER  MORISON. 

But  to  love  one  another. 

*  "DUT  though  the  two  who  looked  down  on 
^~^  the  scene  neither  knew  it  nor  thought 
of  it,  with  them  in  their  little  hollow  was 
a  power  mightier  than  any,  the  power  that 
in  its  highest  form  does  indeed  make  the 
world  go  round  ;  the  one  power  in  the  world 
that  is  above  fortune,  above  death,  above  the 
creeds — or  shall  we  say,  behind  them  ?  For 
with  them  was  love  in  its  highest  form,  the 
love  that  gives  and  does  not  ask,  and  being 
denied — loves.  In  their  clear  moments  men 
know  that  this  love  is  the  only  real  thing  in 
the  world ;  and  a  thousand  times  more  sub- 
stantial, more  existent  than  the  things  we 
grasp  and  see.' — Stanley  weyman,  T/ie 
Abbess  of  Vlaye^  p.  208,  describing  Bonne 
and  her  crippled  brother  looking  down  upon 
the  Peasants'  Camp. 
Ill 


ROMANS  [chap.  xiii. 

'  T  ET  our  one  unceasing  care  be  to  better 
-^^  the  love  we  offer  to  our  fellows.  One 
cup  of  this  love  that  is  drawn  from  the 
spring  on  the  mountains  is  worth  a  hundred 
taken  from  the  stagnant  wells  of  ordinary- 
charity.' 

MAETERLINCK,  in  Wtsdom  and  Destiny. 


XIII.  9.  Thou  shalt  not  steal. 

'  A  T  a  time  when  the  divine  commandment, 
'^^  Thou  shalt  7iot  steals  wherein  truly,  if 
well  understood,  is  comprised  the  whole 
Hebrew  Decalogue,  with  Solon's  and  Lycur- 
gus's  Constitutions,  Justinian's  Pandects, 
the  Code  Napoleon,  and  all  Codes,  Cate- 
chisms, Divinities,  and  Moralities  whatsoever, 
that  man  has  hitherto  devised  (and  enforced 
with  Altar-fire  and  Gallows-ropes)  for  his 
social  guidance ;  at  a  time,  I  say,  when  this 
divine  Commandment  has  all  but  faded  away 
from  the  general  remembrance;  and,  with 
little  disguise,  a  new  opposite  command- 
ment, Thou  shalt  steals  is  everywhere  promul- 
112 


VER.  13]  ROMANS 

gated — it  perhaps  behoved,  in  this  universal 
dotage  and  deliration,  the  sound  portion  of 
mankind  to  bestir  themselves  and  rally.' 
Sartor  Re  sarins,  book  11.  x. 


XIII.  II.   It  is  high  time  to  awake. 

See  Keble's  Christian  Year,  on  '  The  First 
Sunday  in  Advent.' 

XIII.  12.  The  day  is  at  hand;  let  us 
therefore  cast  off  the  works  of  dark- 
ness. 

*  T  N  order  that  passion  may  do  us  no  harm,' 
-*•  says  Pascal,  '  we  should  act  as  though 
we  had  but  a  week  to  live.' 

XIII.  13.  Let  us  walk  honestly  as  in 
the  day  .  .  .  not  in  drunkenness. 

N  the  tenth  chapter  of  Eothen,  Kinglake 
describes  a  visit  he  paid  to  the  Fran- 
ciscan convent  at  Damascus.     '  Very  soon 
after  my  arrival  I  asked  one  of  the  monks 
H  113 


I 


ROMANS  [chap.  xiii. 

to  let  me  know  something  of  the  spots  that 
deserved  to  be  seen.  I  made  my  inquiry  in 
reference  to  the  associations  with  which  the 
city  had  been  hallowed  by  the  sojourn  and 
adventures  of  St.  Paul.  "There  is  nothing 
in  all  Damascus,"  said  the  aged  man,  "  half 
so  well  worth  seeing  as  our  cellars";  and 
forthwith  he  invited  me  to  go,  see,  and 
admire  the  long  range  of  liquid  treasure  that 
he  and  his  brethren  had  laid  up  for  them- 
selves on  earth.  And  these,  I  soon  found, 
were  not  as  the  treasures  of  the  miser  that  lie 
in  unprofitable  disuse ;  for  day  by  day  and 
hour  by  hour,  the  golden  juice  ascended 
from  the  dark  recesses  of  the  cellar  to  the 
uppermost  brains  of  the  friars.' 


D- 


Not  in  revelling. 

jr.  Arnold  of  Rugby,  says  Dr.  Stanley, 
used  to  point  out  to  his  boys  the  dis- 
tinction '  between  mere  amusement  and  such 
as  encroached  on  the  next  day's  duties, 
when,  as  he  said,  it  immediately  becomes 
what  St.  Paul  calls  revelling.^ 
114 


VER.  13]  ROMANS 

nPHIS    was    the    passage    which    led    to 
■^       Augustine's   conversion.       In  chapter 
xii.  of  the  eighth  book  of  his  Confessions  he 
describes  himself  as  seated  under  a  fig-tree 
in  the  garden,  miserable  and  tearful,  when 
the  voice  of  a  boy  or  girl  was  heard  crying, 
'  Take  and  read,  take  and  read  ! '     Augustine 
interpreted  this  as  'a  divine  command  to 
open  the  book '  of  Paul's  epistles  which  he 
had  laid  down  not  far  away,  'and  to   read 
the  first  chapter  I  could  find.     I  seized  the 
book,  opened  it,  and  read  in  silence  the  first 
passage  on  which  my  eyes  lighted.     It  was : 
JVo^  in   revelling    and   drunkenness,    not  in 
chambering  and  wantonness,  not  in  strife  and 
envying:  but  put  ye  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
and  make  not  provision  for  the  flesh  to  fulfil 
the  lusts  thereof     No  further  would  I  read, 
nor  was  aught  else  needed.     At  once,  as  it 
were,  at  the  end  of  the  sentence,  my  heart 
was  flooded  with  the  light  of  peace,  and  all 
the  shades  of  doubt  removed.    Then,  putting 
my  finger  in  the  place  or  some  other  mark, 
I  shut  the  book  and  told  Alypius  quietly 
what  had  occurred.    Whereupon  he  informed 
115 


ROMANS  [chap.  xiv. 

me  of  what  had  happened  to  himself,  of 
which  I  was  ignorant;  and  he  did  so  as 
follows.  Asking  to  see  what  I  had  read, 
he  went  past  my  passage,  which  I  showed 
him,  to  the  following  words  :  Him  that  is 
weak  in  faith,  receive  ye.  This  he  applied  to 
himself,  and  told  me  all.' 


XIV.  5.   Let  every  man  be  fully  per- 
suaded in  his  own  mind. 

*  T^O  consider  the  immense  strength  of  that 
^^  single  verse,  Let  every  man  be  fully 
persuaded  in  his  own  mind,'  writes  Dr.  Arnold 
of  Rugby.  '  I  am  myself  so  much  inclined 
to  the  idea  of  a  strong  social  bond  that  I 
ought  not  to  be  suspected  of  any  tendency 
to  anarchy;  yet  I  am  beginning  to  think 
that  the  idea  may  be  over-strained,  that  this 
attempt  to  merge  the  soul  and  will  of  the 
individual  man  in  the  general  body  is,  when 
fully  developed,  contrary  to  the  very  essence 
of  Christianity.  Indeed,'  he  continues,  'so 
strong  is  the  language  of  some  parts  of  the 
116 


VER.  7]  ROMANS 

New  Testament  in  this  direction,  as  to  be 
an  actual  perplexity  to  me.  St.  Paul's 
language  concerning  it,  I  think,  may  be 
explained,  but  the  refusal  of  our  Lord  to 
comply  with  some  of  the  indifferent  customs, 
such  as  washing  before  meals,  is,  when  I 
come  to  consider  it,  so  startling  that  I  feel 
that  there  is  something  in  it  which  I  do  not 
fully  understand.' 


XIV.  7.  For  none  of  us  liveth  to  him- 
self, and  no  man  dieth  to  himself. 

^1  miTTIER,  in  his  introduction  to  Wool- 
*  ^  man's  Journal^  calls  attention  to  the 
fact  that  'in  his  life-long  testimony  against 
wrong,'  the  Quaker  '  never  lost  sight  of  the 
oneness  of  humanity,  its  common  respon- 
sibility, its  fellowship  of  suffering,  and  com- 
munion of  sin.  P'ew  have  ever  had  so 
profound  a  conviction  of  the  truth  of  the 
Apostle's  declaration  that  no  man  liveth  and 
no  man  dieth  to  himself.  Sin  was  not  to 
him  an  isolated  fact,  the  responsibility  of 
117 


ROMANS  [chap.  xiv. 

which  began  and  ended  with  the  individual 
transgressor;  he  saw  it  as  a  part  of  a  vast 
network  and  entanglement,  and  traced  the 
lines  of  influence  converging  upon  it  in  the 
underworld  of  causation.' 


XIV.  8.  Whether  we  die,  we  die  unto 
the  Lord. 

'T^HESE  were  the  last  words  that  could  be 
-*-      made  out  amid  the  dying  ejaculations 
of  Edward  Irving :  *  If  I  die,'  he  murmured, 
*  I  die  unto  the  Lord.     Amen.' 


XIV.  lo.  Why  dost  thou  judge  thy 
brother  ?  for  we  shall  all  stand  before 
the  judgment- seat  of  Christ. 

*  "pAUL  does  not  mean  that  God  will 
■*-  punish  him,  and  that  we  may  rest 
satisfied  that  our  enemy  will  be  turned  into 
hell-fire.  Rather  does  he  mean,  what  we 
too  feel,  that,  reflecting  upon  the  great  idea 
ii8 


VER.  17]  ROMANS 

of  God  and  on  all  that  it  involves,  our  ani- 
mosities are  softened,  and  our  heat  against 
our  brother  is  cooled.' 

From  Mark  Rutherford^ s  Deliverance. 

XIV.   17.  The  kingdom  of  God  is  not 
meat  and  drink. 

*  T  TSING  the  language  of  accommodation 
^^  to  the  ideas  current  amongst  his 
hearers,  Jesus  talked  of  drinking  wine  and 
sitting  on  thrones  in  the  kingdom  of  God; 
and  texts  of  this  kind  are  what  popular 
religion  promptly  seized  and  built  upon. 
But  other  profounder  texts  meanwhile  there 
were,  which  remained,  one  may  say,  in 
shadow.  This  is  life  eternal,  to  know  thee, 
the  only  true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ,  whom 
thou  hast  sent.  The  kingdom  of  God  is 
righteousness  and  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy 
Spirit.  These  deeper  texts  will  gradually 
come  more  and  more  into  notice  and 
prominence  and  use.' —  From  matthew 
Arnold's  preface  to  the  popular  edition  of 
Literature  and  Dogma. 
119 


ROMANS  [chap.  xv. 

XIV.  22.  Happy  is  he  that  judgeth  not 
himself  in  that  which  he  approveth. 

*  A  ^  WHENEVER  conscience  speaks  with 
^  ^  a  divided,  uncertain,  and  disputed 
voice,  it  is  not  yet  the  voice  of  God. 
Descend  still  deeper  into  yourself,  until  you 
hear  nothing  but  a  clear  and  undivided 
voice,  a  voice  which  does  away  with  doubts 
and  brings  with  it  persuasion,  light,  and 
serenity.  Happy,  says  the  Apostle,  are 
they  who  are  at  peace  with  themselves,  and 
whose  heart  condemneth  them  not  in  the 
part  they  take.  This  inner  identity,  this 
unity  of  conviction,  is  all  the  more  difficult 
the  more  the  mind  analyses,  discriminates, 
and  foresees.'  »„.r,T 

AMIEL. 

XV.  I.  They  that  are  strong  ought  to 
bear  the  infirmities  of  the  weak,  and 
not  to  please  themselves. 

'T^HERE'S   a   text    wants    no   candle  to 

-*-       show't;  it  shines   by   its   own   light. 

It's  plain  enough  you  get  into  the  wrong 

I20 


VER.  i]  ROMANS 

road  in  this  life  if  you  run  after  this  and 
that  only  for  the  sake  o'  making  things  easy 
and  pleasant  to  yourself.  A  pig  may  poke 
his  nose  into  the  trough,  and  think  o'  nothing 
outside  it ;  but  if  you  've  got  a  man's  heart 
and  soul  in  you,  you  can't  be  easy  a-making 
your  own  bed  an'  leaving  the  rest  to  lie  on 
the  stones.  Nay,  I  '11  never  slip  my  neck  out 
of  the  yoke,  an'  leave  the  load  to  be  drawn  by 
the  weak  uns.' — Adam  Bede,  in  George 
eliot's  Adam  Bede. 

*  TUTHER  himself,' says  Kostlin, '  even  with 
^^^  regard  to  rites  and  ordinances  which 
he  rejected  altogether,  always  counselled 
moderation  and  patience  towards  the  weak. 
He  could  not  believe  that  the  great  body  of  his 
Wittenberg  congregation  were  already  ripe 
for  such  changes,  or  that  many  conscientious 
but  weaker  brethren  among  them  were  not 
in  need  of  tender  consideration.  ...  It  was 
precisely  that  those  members  should  have 
proper  time  allowed  them,  and  every  means 
taken  for  their  instruction  and  edification, 
that  was  to  Luther  a  matter  of  conscience. ' 

121 


ROMANS  [chap.  xv. 

'  A  LL  men  need  to  have  near  them,  alHed 
-^"^  in  close  association  with  them,  either 
a  force  to  strengthen  their  weakness  or  else 
a  weakness  which  insists  upon  some  demon- 
stration of  their  strength.' 
JOHN  OLIVER  HOBBES,  in  Robert  Orange. 

XV.  3.  Christ  also  pleased  not  Himself. 

*  T  T  E  so  farre  thy  good  did  plot, 
-n.      That  His  own  self  He  forgot : 
Did  He  die,  or  did  He  not  ? ' 

GEORGE  HERBERT. 


O 


LORD,  that  I  could  waste  my  life  for 


With  no  ends  of  my  own ; 
That  I  could  pour  myself  into  my  brothers, 
And  live  for  them  alone  ! 

Such  was  the  life  Thou  livedst  \  self-abjuring, 
Thine  own  pains  never  easing. 

Our  burdens  bearing,  our  just  doom 
enduring, 

A  life  without  self-pleasing.' 

F.  W.  FABER. 
122 


VER.  5]  ROMANS 

XV.  5.  The  God  of  patience. 

*  IVr  ATURE  never  hurries :  atom  by  atom, 
''■  ^  little  by  little,  she  achieves  her  work. 
The  lesson  one  learns  in  fishing,  yachting, 
hunting,  or  planting,  is  the  manners  of 
Nature;  patience  with  the  delays  of  wind 
and  sun,  delays  of  the  seasons,  bad  weather, 
excess  or  lack  of  water — patience  with  the 
slowness  of  our  feet,  with  the  parsimony  of 
our  strength,  with  the  largeness  of  sea  and 
land  we  must  traverse,  etc' 

EMERSON. 

The  God  of  comfort. 

'  r^  OD  styles  Himself,  in  all  the  Holy  Scrip- 
^-^  tures,  a  God  of  life,  of  peace,  of 
comfort,  and  of  joy,  for  the  sake  of  Christ. 
I  hate  myself  that  I  cannot  believe  it  so  con- 
stantly and  surely  as  I  should ;  but  no  human 
creature  can  rightly  know  how  mercifully 
God  is  inclined  toward  those  who  steadfastly 
believe  in  Christ.' 

From  Luther's  Table-Talk. 
123 


ROMANS  [chap.  xv. 

XV.  13.  Joy  in  believing. 

'  ^l[  7'E  continually  hear  of  the  trials,  some- 
*  *  times  of  the  victories,  of  faith, — but 
scarcely  ever  of  its  pleasures.  .  .  .  Set  to 
any  work  you  have  in  hand  with  the  sifted 
and  purified  resolution  that  ambition  shall 
not  mix  with  it,  nor  love  of  gain,  nor  desire 
of  pleasure  more  than  is  appointed  for  you ; 
and  that  no  anxiety  shall  touch  you  as  to 
its  issue,  nor  any  impatience  nor  regret  if 
it  fail.  .  .  .  Resolve  also  with  steady  in- 
dustry to  do  what  you  can  for  the  help  of 
your  country  and  its  honour,  and  the  honour 
of  its  God ;  and  that  you  will  not  join  hands 
in  its  iniquity,  nor  turn  aside  from  its  misery ; 
and  that  in  all  you  do  and  feel  you  will  look 
frankly  for  the  immediate  help  and  direction, 
and  to  your  own  consciences,  expressed  ap- 
proval, of  God.  Live  then  and  believe,  and 
with  singleness  of  answer  proportioned  to  the 
frankness  of  the  trust,  most  surely  the  God 
of  peace  will  fill  you  with  all  joy  and  peace 
in  believing.' — From  ruskin's  Pleasures  of 
England,  ii. 

124 


VER.  13]  ROMANS 

*  OINCE  Saturday  last,'  writes  Boston  in  his 
^^  Memoirs^  '  I  have  had  most  sensible 
experience  of  the  solid  joy  and  peace  in 
beHeving  God  to  be  my  God  in  Christ. 
I  find  it  is  a  blessed  means  of  sanctification. 
It  strengthens  to  duty;  for  I  have  been 
helped  in  my  work  of  visiting  since  that  time. 
It  nourishes  love  to  the  Lord;  and  con- 
sequently love  to  and  desire  of  the  thriving 
of  His  work  in  people's  souls.  It  creates  a 
sweet  calm,  and  quiet  of  mind,  in  doubtful 
events ;  ...  it  sweetens  other  enjoyments, 
and  carries  above  things  which  at  other 
times  are  irritating  and  create  disgust. 
I  have  compared  flashes  of  affection,  with 
a  calm,  sedate,  tender  love  to  the  Lord; 
and  I  prefer  the  latter  to  the  former,  and 
have  been,  and  am,  happy  in  it.' 


*  /CHRISTIANITY  ...  has  not  penetrated 
^-^  into  the  whole  heart  of  Jesus.  She  is 
still  in  the  narthex  of  penitence ;  she  is  not 
reconciled,  and  even  the  churches  still  wear 
the  livery  of  service,  and  have  none  of  the 
125 


ROMANS  [chap.  xv. 

joy  of  the  daughters  of  God,  baptized  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.' 

AMIEL. 

*  T  BENT  before  Thy  gracious  throne, 

-^     And  asked  for  peace  on  suppliant  knee ; 
And  peace  was  given — not  peace  alone, 
But  faith  sublimed  to  ecstasy.' 

WORDSWORTH. 

*  T    IVE   greatly;    so  thou  shalt  enjoy  un- 
^-^     known  capacities  of  joy.' 

COVENTRY   PATMORE. 

That  ye  may  abound  in  hope. 

*  'T^HE  poet  claims  at  least  this  praise, 

-^      That  virtuous  Liberty  hath  been  the 

scope 
Of  his  pure  song,  which  did  not  shrink  from 

hope 
In  the  worst  moment  of  these  evil  days ; 
From  hope,  the  paramount  dufy  that  Heaven 

lays 
For  its  own  honour  on  man's  suffering  heart.' 

WORDSWORTH. 

126 


VER.  26]  ROMANS 

XV.  14.  Ye  yourselves  are  filled  with 
all  knowledge. 

*  TF  a  reverent  ignorance  is  to  be  the  last 
-^  word  of  thought  about  religion,  not  only 
will  Christ  have  died  in  vain,  but  science 
will  have  toiled  to  little  real  purpose.' 

C.    H.    PEARSON. 


XV.  26.  The  poor  saints. 


*  'T^HE  great  problem  of  human  life,'  says 
-*"      Mr.  P.  G.  Hamerton,  'is  the  recon- 
ciliation of  poverty  and  the  soul.' 


A/TACCHIAVELLI  once  said  that  'the 
^^^  kingdom  of  the  clergy  had  been  long 
before  at  an  end,  if  the  reputation  and  re- 
verence towards  the  poverty  of  friars  had  not 
borne  out  the  scandal  of  the  superfluities  and 
excesses  of  bishops  and  prelates.'  Bacon, 
who  quotes  this  in  T/ie  Advancement  of 
Learnings  adds  :  '  So  a  man  might  say  that 
the  felicity  and  delicacy  of  princes  and  great 
127 


ROMANS  [chap.  xvi. 

persons  had  long  since  turned  to  rudeness 
and  barbarism,  if  the  poverty  of  learning  had 
not  kept  up  civility  and  honour  of  life/ 


XV.  33.     Now  the   God  of  peace  be 
with  you  all. 

"V  7[  rHEN  Horace  Bushnell  was  dying,  he 
*  ^  murmured  one  day  slowly,  and  in 
great  weakness,  to  those  around  his  bed, 
'  Well  now,  we  are  all  going  home  together ; 
and  I  say,  the  Lord  be  with  you — and  in 
grace — and  peace — and  love— and  that  is  the 
way  I  have  come  along  home.' 


XVI.  4.     Who  have  for  my  life  laid 
down  their  own  necks. 

*  IVfOW  it  was  a  time  of  great  sufferings; 
''■  ^  and  many  Friends  being  in  prison, 
many  other  Friends  were  moved  to  go  to  the 
Parliament,  to  offer  up  themselves  to  lie  in  the 
same  dungeon,  where  their  friends  lay,  that 
128 


VER.  13]  ROMANS 

they  that  were  in  prison  might  go  out  and  not 
perish  in  the  stinking  jails.  This  we  did  in 
love  to  God  and  our  brethren  that  they  might 
not  die  in  prison.' 

VO^^'s  Journal,  for  1658. 


XVI.   13.     Salute  Rufus  the  chosen  in 
the  Lord,  and  his  mother. 

'  IVr  ^  ^^"^  mother  did  me  one  altogether 
-'■'-'■  invaluable  service;  she  taught  me, 
less  indeed  by  word  than  by  act  and  daily 
reverent  look  and  habitude,  her  own  simple 
version  of  the  Christian  faith.  .  .  .  My 
mother,  with  a  true  woman's  heart,  and  fine 
though  uncultivated  sense,  was  in  the  strict- 
est acceptation  Religious.  The  highest 
whom  I  knew  on  Earth  I  here  saw  bowed 
down,  with  awe  unspeakable  before  a  Higher 
in  Heaven  :  such  things,  especially  in  infancy, 
reach  inwards  to  the  very  core  of  your  being.' 
Sartor  Resartus^  Book  11.  ii. 


129 


ROMANS  [chap.  xvi. 

XVI.   17.     Mark    them    which    cause 
divisions. 

TN  the  second  chapter  of  his  Apologia^ 
^  Newman  uses  this  verse  to  justify  his 
conduct  towards  his  brother  Francis. 

*  I  would  have  no  dealings  with  my  brother, 
and  I  put  my  conduct  upon  a  syllogism.  I 
said,  St.  Paul  bids  us  avoid  those  who  cause 
divisions;  you  cause  divisions;  therefore  I 
must  avoid  you.'  He  admits  that  his  be- 
haviour on  this  and  other  occasions  laid  him 
'  open,  not  unfairly,  to  the  charge  of  fierce- 
ness,' but  adds,  '  It  is  only  fair  to  myself  to 
say  that  neither  at  this,  nor  any  other  time  of 
my  life,  not  even  when  I  was  fiercest,  could  I 
have  even  cut  off  a  Puritan's  ears,  and  I  think 
the  sight  of  a  Spanish  auto-da-fi  would  have 
been  the  death  of  me.' 


*  'T^HERE  were  few  warnings  to  his  pupils 

"*■       on  the  entrance  into  life  more  solemn 

than  those  against  party  spirit,  against  giving 

to  any  human  party,  sect,  society,  or  cause, 

130 


VER.  17]  ROMANS 

that  undivided  sympathy  and  service  which 
he  held  to  be  due  only  to  the  one  party  and 
cause  of  all  good  men  under  this  Divine 
Head.  There  were  few  more  fervent  aspira- 
tions for  his  children  than  that  with  which 
he  closes  a  letter  in  1833  :  "  May  God  grant 
to  my  sons,  if  they  live  to  manhood,  an  un- 
shaken love  of  truth,  and  a  firm  resolution 
to  follow  it  up  themselves,  with  an  intense 
abhorrence  of  all  party  ties,  save  that  one  tie 
which  binds  them  to  the  party  of  Christ 
against  wicked  men."' 

STANLEY'S  Life  of  Dr.  Arnold^  iv. 


Printed  by  T.  and  A.  Constable,  Printers  to  His  Majesty 
at  the  Edinburgh  University  Press 


-xT,   D.D. 

Vol.  I.  The  Book  of  Ecclesiastes 
Vol.  II.  The  Book  of  Daniel 
Vol.  III.  The  Gospel  of  St.  Mark 
Vol.  IV.  The  Gospel  of  St.  Luke 
Vol.  V.  The  Epistle  to  the  Romans 
Vol.  VI.  The  Book  of  Revelation 

The  materials  employed  in  compiling  these  volumes 
are  of  two  kinds.  On  the  one  hand  have  been  set 
down  passages  of  verse  and  prose  in  which  some 
text  has  been  used  or  applied  in  a  forcible  or 
notable  manner.  Some  of  these  are  drawn  from 
history  and  biography,  others  from  general  litera- 
ture. In  the  second  place,  the  author  has  admitted 
passages  which  develop  aptly  and  freshly  not  the 
words  but  the  idea  of  a  Biblical  verse,  and  it  is  hoped 
that  both  classes  of  illustrations  may  prove  interest- 
ing and  valuable  to  the  ordinary  reader  as  well  as  to 
the  preacher  and  teacher  by  enriching  the  associa- 
tions and  eliciting  the  significance  of  the  Bible. 

LONDON :   HODDER  AND  STOUGHTON 
27  PATERNOSTER  ROW 


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Date  Due 


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mtfmm 


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BS2665.M695 

The  Epistle  to  the  Romans. 

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1    1012  00068  0506 


